Global e-commerce company eBay Inc. has agreed to pay a $3 million criminal penalty to a Massachusetts couple after former employees targeted them in a harassment and intimidation campaign, officials said Thursday.

The company admitted that between August 2019 and August 2020, Jim Baugh, eBay’s former Senior Director of Safety and Security, and six other members of the security team targeted the victims for their roles in publishing a newsletter for eBay sellers, the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts said.

"eBay engaged in absolutely horrific, criminal conduct," said Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy. "The company’s employees and contractors involved in this campaign put the victims through pure hell, in a petrifying campaign aimed at silencing their reporting and protecting the eBay brand."

Ina and David Steiner of Natick, Massachusetts, founded e-commerce newsletter site EcommerceBytes – launched in 1999 as AuctionBytes – and their coverage could often be critical of eBay and its policies.