eBay CEO Devin Wenig Orchestrated a Criminal Stalking Campaign and Walked Away With $57 Million

There Are No Girls on the Internet

iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture, Technology

4.1 • 905 Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2026

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is the 2nd episode of a 2-part series about a case where security goons from eBay travelled across the country to stalk and harass a husband-wife journalist duo. If you haven't listened to part 1 yet, you probably should. We published it on May 19, 2026.

For over two decades, the pair have been publishing EcommerceBytes, a respected trade publication for eBay sellers. But in 2019, someone started harassing them. It began with a spray painted fence, then quickly escalated to death threats and fetal pigs and a mysterious van outside their house. Eventually, they discovered that eBay's own security team was behind it all, with the campaign put into motion by then-CEO Devin Wenig. This bizarre and frightening story is a cautionary tale about the rise of private armies. It starts in San Francisco, takes us to the small community of Natick, Massachusetts, and ultimately takes TANGOTI listeners right back to Madison Square Garden. Buckle up.

Let us know what you think by emailing hello@tangoti.com or leaving a comment on Spotify.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an IHeart podcast.
0:02.6	Guaranteed Human.
0:08.1	There are No Girls on the Internet as a production of IHeart Radio and UnBossed Creative.
0:16.3	I'm Bridget Todd, and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet.
0:22.0	Last week, we were talking about one of the wildest tech stories I have ever heard about.
0:27.5	This is a two-part episode, so this is part two.
0:29.9	If you missed part one, you should listen to that first.
0:32.9	To catch you up, though, we've got a husband and wife in Natick, Massachusetts,
0:39.1	Ena and David Steiner,
0:44.8	who, for the last 20 years, ran a small newsletter covering eBay called E. Commerce Bites.
0:50.4	It's a trade publication, a trusted source for the kind of small sellers who depend on knowing how eBay works as a platform. And in 2019, eBay CEO, David Wenig, under pressure
0:57.8	from an activist investor threatening his job, decided that Ina Steiner needed to be, in the words of
1:05.7	his chief communications officer Steve Weimer, crushed. Weneg texted back, quote, take her down.
1:13.9	So Weimer escalated that to eBay's head of security, a man named Jim Baugh, former CIA,
1:20.7	National Clandestine Service, with instructions to, quote, do whatever it takes and a promise
1:26.7	that he wanted to see ashes.
1:30.4	Producer Mike, what followed is one of the most unhinged corporate harassment campaigns in American history.
1:37.9	You know it's bad when the plan has an actual code name, in this case, the White Knight strategy, designed to terrorize
1:45.8	the Steiner's into outing an anonymous source while eBay breathed in as their fake savior.
1:51.8	The things that they're doing to terrorize this poor couple that their big crime was running
1:56.4	this eBay newsletter was graffitting their fence, sending them hundreds of disturbing newsletter
2:03.3	subscriptions, death threats, sending a book to David called How to Grieve the Loss of a
	...

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