A former top eBay Inc. security executive pleaded guilty on Thursday to cyberstalking conspiracy and witness tampering in a macabre harassment campaign against a couple whose critical blog posts outraged company executives.

Brian Gilbert, who was the online auctioneer’s senior global security manager and before that a police captain, appeared by videoconference in federal court in Boston after striking a plea deal with prosecutors.

Gilbert, 52, is the second former security manager and police captain to plead guilty in the case, following Philip Cooke, who oversaw security for eBay’s European and Asian offices. Cooke entered his plea earlier this week after making an agreement under which the government will recommend he serve 2 1/2 years in prison. A judge will decide on both terms next year.

Pig Mask

The security team sent the suburban Boston couple who put out the blog disturbing anonymous deliveries, including a bloody pig mask, live insects and a book on surviving the death of a spouse, according to prosecutors. As part of the scheme, they say, blogger Ina Steiner’s address was posted online in advertisements for sex parties and estate sales.

Prosecutors say the harassment campaign began after Steiner criticized Devin Wenig, then eBay’s chief executive officer, in an August 2019 post saying he had mishandled the e-commerce giant’s online sellers. Wenig hasn’t been charged in the case and denies involvement in the scheme.

The alleged conspirators traveled to the couple’s home in Natick and “agreed to what the government’s calling the ‘White Knight Strategy,’ which included sending anonymous and harassing Twitter messages to victim 1 so that she would later be receptive to eBay’s offer of assistance with that very same harassment,” according to the U.S., in a reference to Steiner.

When local police began uncovering the scheme, Gilbert and Cooke conspired to throw the authorities off the trail, according to court documents. Fearing the police would trace gift cards bought anonymously at a California Safeway, Gilbert schemed to keep them from seeing any store videotape of the eBay worker buying the cards, the U.S. says.

‘Totally Rattled’

“If they bring it up, I might volunteer to assist with that,” Gilbert said in a group text, according to court documents. “Then we can control the local cop, and maybe provide a video from a different Santa Clara Safeway.”

The U.S. says Gilbert called the victims pretending to offer eBay’s help and timing the call to follow threatening anonymous Twitter messages that Stephanie Popp, who was senior manager of global intelligence, was sending them.

“Just made phone contact” with the couple, he said in a group text to his colleagues, according to court documents. “They are totally rattled and immediately referred me to Natick PD Detective [omitted].”

Plea deals for other former security workers who have pleaded guilty in the case range from 2 1/2 years for contractor Veronica Zea to three years and five months for Popp.

The case is U.S. v. Baugh, 20-mj-02398, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts (Boston).