Six ex-eBay employers have been charged over a systematic campaign to harass a couple sending them live cockroaches and spiders, and a bloody pig mask. Veuer’s Justin Kircher has more. Buzz60
On General Motors’ recommendation, shareholders on Tuesday reelected to the board of directors controversial figure Devin Wenig.
Wenig, the former CEO of eBay Inc., has been on GM’s board since 2018. Now he will serve another year in his paid position advising GM leaders.
But Wenig, 53, is becoming a familiar name for the wrong reasons. He is associated with — though not charged in — a criminal case that brought federal charges against six of his former underlings at eBay, the online auction house. Those six allegedly cyber-stalked a Massachusetts couple for writing unfavorable reviews in an online newsletter the pair published.
“Shareholders probably didn’t make the connection between the eBay harassment and Wenig,” said Erik Gordon, a professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. “But GM knew about it and still thought he was the kind of director they wanted.”
When the Free Press contacted Wenig, he asked a spokesman to respond. The spokesman, who asked to not be named, said Wenig never imagined that a “moment of anger would lead to these series of terrible events that he had nothing to do with.” He said Wenig learned about the harassing activities when authorities did and his position on GM’s board is not related to the criminal harassment case.
Regrettable…but
GM paid Wenig a total compensation last year of $317,308 for serving on the board. He was the fifth-highest paid of the nonemployee directors in 2019, according to GM’s 2020 proxy statement.
On Monday, during a “fireside chat” with reporters, GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra was asked to react to the newly reported allegations in relation to Wenig’s standing on the board. She said it would have no impact on Tuesday’s annual shareholders meeting.
“When I look at this, it’s regrettable,” Barra said, but added, “Since it didn’t involve any GM business, I don’t have any comment on it now. But GM has a long-standing record of opposing harassment of any form.”
Boards of large public companies often meet monthly, Gordon said. Directors are assigned to committees that have separate meetings and they often have thick briefing books to read. In GM’s case, in January 2019, Barra told a Wall Street analyst that GM’s board is actively engaged in helping her run the company on a regular basis, something that’s unusual, according to business experts.
“It’s a very involved board,” said Barra at the time. “We’ve got to face the brutal fact and understand what’s happening and seize opportunities,” adding that often she and board members will “jump on a call” to discuss company business ahead of the regular board meetings.
In its proxy, GM states it nominated Wenig to the board for his “extensive senior leadership experience in technology, global operations and strategic planning. His experience leading technology companies provides key insights into GM’s cybersecurity framework and strategy related to the future of mobility, autonomous vehicles, vehicle connectivity and data monetization.”
Wenig, a New York native with a juris doctor degree from Columbia University, offers a rich business background. Prior to joining eBay, Wenig was CEO of Thomson Reuters Corporation’s Thomson Reuters Markets division, he also served as Chief Operating Officer of Reuters Group and president of Reuters Business divisions.
He joined eBay in 2011 as president of its Marketplaces business, GM’s bio on him says. In 2015, Wenig was named CEO, a position he held until he resigned from the company last September, reportedly over disagreements with eBay’s board on how to overhaul the business.
‘Take her down’
But the timing of his departure also came after eBay’s internal investigation into what U.S. prosecutors call an “extensive and disturbing campaign of harassment” against the blogging couple.
That campaign allegedly started in summer 2019. The six eBay employees mailed the couple boxes full of live cockroaches, spiders, a pig fetus, a funeral wreath and books about surviving the death of a spouse, among other things, according to various published reports that cite Andrew Lelling, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts.
The eBay group reportedly also sent pizza to the couple’s home at 4:30 a.m., advertised a fake yard sale that told people to enter the house if no one was outside, and swingers parties, telling people to arrive at the home after 10 p.m.
All six employees have been terminated from eBay. There is no suggestion in court papers that Wenig knew of the plot.
But a string of Wenig’s angry emails, prosecutors say, triggered the harassment scheme, and played a central role in the government’s narrative of what happened, Bloomberg Law reported. He reportedly had sent texts to a colleague expressing his anger over a blogger’s criticism of his oversight of eBay, Bloomberg Law wrote.
“Take her down,” Wenig allegedly wrote in response to a post by the blogger, Bloomberg Law reported.
In a statement to the Free Press, Wenig said, “As confirmed by the company following a thorough, independent investigation, I did not direct or know anything about the acts that have been charged in Boston. I have spent my career defending press freedoms. What these charges allege is unconscionable.”
‘Who Wenig is’
An eBay spokesperson told the Free Press on Wednesday that eBay has a portal through which law enforcement agencies can securely seek assistance or records for investigations that relate to eBay.
In August 2019, law enforcement used the portal to contact eBay. That is how the company learned about the harassment case and immediately started an internal investigation of what role, if any, Wenig had at the time of the incident.
The investigation found that, while Wenig’s, “communications were inappropriate, there was no evidence that he knew in advance about or authorized the actions that were later directed toward the blogger and her husband,” said the spokesperson, who would not speak on the record.
As to how much the harassment incident had to do with Wenig’s departure, the spokesperson would say only, “As the company previously announced, there were a number of considerations leading to his departure from the company.”
U-M’s Gordon said GM should be concerned about Wenig’s presence on its board because inappropriate communication might reflect questionable character.
“If Don Corleone says, ‘That guy should take a swim with the fishes’ and one of his lieutenants shoots the guy in the back of the head, you could find a law firm that would say the Don’s communications were inappropriate, but not find evidence that he knew in advance or authorized the shooting,” Gordon said. “Would GM say that what the Don did at his own organization has nothing to do with GM? What Wenig did may have had nothing to do with GM, but it has a lot to do with who Wenig is.”
GM declined to comment when the Free Press asked whether management feels the need to investigate Wenig further due to eBay’s internal investigation finding that his communication was “inappropriate.”
GM spokesman Pat Morrissey’s only comment remained, “We only learned of this regrettable incident from recent media reports. Since this did not involve GM business, we will not comment on it publicly now. GM is opposed to harassment in any form.”
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Contact Jamie L. LaReau: 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter.
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