Former eBay Exec Sentenced for Cyberstalking Campaign

A former eBay executive has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for his role in a cyberstalking campaign against a Natick couple who published a newsletter critical of the company.

Philip Cooke, 56, a former police captain in Santa Clara, Calif., was sentenced to 18 months in prison, three years of supervised release with the first year spent in home detention, and ordered to pay a fine of $15,000 and perform 100 hours of community service.

Cooke admitted to conspiring with six other former eBay employees, including David Harville, James Baugh, Stephanie Popp, Veronica Zea, Stephanie Stockwell, and Brian Gilbert, to execute a three-part harassment campaign against the Natick couple.

The campaign included ordering anonymous and disturbing deliveries to the victims’ home, including a preserved fetal pig, a bloody pig Halloween mask, and a book on surviving the loss of a spouse.

The defendants also sent private Twitter messages and public tweets criticizing the newsletter’s content and threatening to visit the victims in Natick.

Cooke and his co-conspirators allegedly sought to interfere with the investigation by discussing the possibility of presenting the Natick Police with a false investigative lead and deleting digital evidence that showed their involvement.

eBay provided valuable assistance and cooperation with the federal investigation, which was led by Acting United States Attorney Nathaniel R. Mendell and Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth B. Kosto, Deputy Chief of Mendell’s Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit.