eBay Welcomes Samantha Wellington As Chief Legal Officer
eBay has finally named a permanent Chief Legal Officer, announcing Samantha Wellington will join the company on October 7, reporting directly to CEO Jamie Iannone and overseeing all global aspects of eBay's legal department, including Government Relations, intellectual property, employment, litigation, regulatory and corporate work across our financial services, marketplaces, and product and technology organizations.
eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY), a global commerce leader that connects millions of buyers and sellers around the world, today announced the appointment of Samantha Wellington as Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, General Counsel and Secretary.
In this role, Samantha will oversee all global aspects of eBay's legal department, including Government Relations, intellectual property, employment, litigation, regulatory and corporate work across our financial services, marketplaces, and product and technology organizations. Samantha will report directly to Jamie Iannone, eBay’s Chief Executive Officer, and will join the company on October 7, 2024.
Samantha joins eBay with a distinguished career in legal and business affairs, most recently serving as TriNet’s Executive Vice President of Business Affairs, Chief Legal Officer, and Secretary.
In this role, Samantha led a team of professionals across Legal, Compliance, Government Affairs, Customer Service, Sales, Operations, Product Management, Engineering, Technology, and Risk. Her leadership focused on spearheading initiatives that address the evolving workplace dynamics for TriNet’s customers, facilitating capital access for small business owners, and enhancing customer service experiences to support business growth.
Prior to TriNet, she spent 12 years at Oracle, where she held a number of senior legal positions.
Wellington take over from interim General Counsel Ken Ebanks who stepped in after previous Chief Legal Officer Marie Oh Huber departed the company in June.
Liz Morton
Oh Huber's continued presence at the company had raised many questions as eBay continues to be mired in litigation regarding the 2019 cyberstalking and harassment of journalists Ina and David Steiner of EcommerceBytes.
The shocking corporate plot sought to change the content of the Steiners' reporting through harassment, intimidation, and a "White Knight Strategy" wherein eBay security personnel hoped to gain their assistance to unmask the identity of Fidomaster/unsuckEBAY, a frequent commenter and source who also sparked the ire of top executives at the company.
Liz Morton
Senior Director Security Jim Baugh, Director of Global Resiliency David Harville, Security Manager Philip Cooke, Senior Manager of Global Intelligence Stephanie Popp, Global Intelligence Manager Stephanie Stockwell, Senior Manager of Special Operations Brian Gilbert, and a contracted security analyst Veronica Zea all pleaded guilty and have been sentenced or are awaiting sentencing for their roles in the crimes.
The Steiners have also filed a civil case against the criminal defendants plus ex-CEO Devin Wenig, ex-Communications Chief Steve Wymer, ex-SVP Global Operations Wendy Jones, eBay Inc. and security company Progressive F.O.R.C.E Concepts - alleging communications from the very top of the c-suite directed and egged on the harassment.
While Oh Huber was not named either criminally or civilly in these cases, court documents reveal she engaged in conversations about efforts to get Twitter to "kill" unsuckeBay and was cced on troubling internal correspondence, including Wymer's infamous "Whatever. It. Takes" email.
The email that Wymer sent on August 7, 2019...was written in response to an earlier email that an in-house eBay attorney sent to Wymer, Huber, and Mr. Baugh, about the limited options for addressing...tweets about eBay, which the company believed were connected to, or provoked by, the Newsletter [EcommerceBytes].
The full thread makes clear that Huber and Aaron Johnson in eBay’s legal department requested that Mr. Baugh regularly update the company’s senior executives about “any news/developments on [his] end.”...
...During a lengthy discussion by email about @unsuckebay...Mr. Baugh reported to Wenig, Wymer, and Huber that the security department was working to gather “information regarding [the poster’s] identity and location”.
In the same thread, Wymer mentioned corporate and legal efforts to “get [@unsuckebay] killed.”
Source: USA v. Baugh 1:20-cr-10263 Doc 79
The email chain started with Wenig expressing his desire to see the unsuckEBAY Twitter account shut down - assigning the task to Baugh, with Oh Huber and Wymer copied.
Wymer confirmed he had previously discussed the issue with Baugh and explored all angles with Twitter but had been unable to get the account killed.
Oh Huber echoed the frustration, but her and another member of eBay legal, Aaron Johnson, advised there wasn't a strong claim to appeal to Twitter to take action.
Baugh appeared to be trying to placate his bosses by offering that his team had been investigating for weeks and were close to discovering the identity and location of unsuckEBAY.
Oh Huber accepted that answer with a smiley face emoji, saying she would hold off on pursuing further legal steps in light of Baugh's investigation.
The next day Wymer expressed he was "utterly vexed" by the situation and that any effort to "solve" the problem should be explored...Whatever. It. Takes.
As a result of eBay's internal investigation into these events, the Safety & Security unit was moved to the Legal Department from the Global Operations division, putting the entire security apparatus at eBay ultimately under Oh Huber's control.
eBay also continues to operate an on-campus pub that was a catalyst to the cyberstalking scandal, despite the obvious liability issues involved in continuing to regularly serve alcohol to employees on company property - especially when a "hard drinking culture" was blamed by multiple defendants for their "poor judgement" in committing federal crimes during the course of their employment.
Will that change under new legal leadership?
Liz Morton
eBay has recently entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ accepting criminal liability for the felonious acts of their employees which includes a $3 Million fine and 3 years of enhanced compliance monitoring.
Curiously, the compliance monitoring requirements specifically call out Mergers & Acquisitions due diligence and risk.
Liz Morton
That may indicate authorities and regulators have broader concerns about eBay's operations, such as apparent due diligence and disclosure failures in eBay's acquisition of trading card marketplace TCGPlayer, which led to the formation of the first US labor union in eBay's history and the sudden departure of Chief Accounting Officer Brian Doerger last year.
Regulatory scrutiny could heat up even further since the Responsible Online Commerce Coalition filed an FTC petition calling for an investigation into the acquisition, citing “serious concerns about eBay/TCGplayer’s apparently deceptive and anticompetitive conduct” including illegal monopoly maintenance, anticompetitive rollups, overcharging sellers and consumers “junk fees” and competing directly against third party sellers on their own site with on disclosure to those sellers or to consumers.
Liz Morton
In addition to ongoing labor troubles and due diligence concerns, eBay has agreed to a historic $59 Million settlement with the DEA to resolve allegations involving pill presses being sold on the site in violation of the Controlled Substances Act and is involved in ongoing litigation brought by the EPA due to sales of certain pesticides, chemicals, and emissions-control cheat devices.
Liz Morton
eBay is also currently conducting an "investor recommended" Values Assessment, promising to "[take] a close look at our workplace practices, policies, culture, and [hear] directly from our employees and external stakeholders" to determine if the company is living up to their Human Rights Policy Statement, including the United Nations Principles on Business and Human Rights and the ILO Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.
Liz Morton
Iannone extolled Wellington's expertise and passion for empowering small businesses, saying:
"Samantha has successfully led multifaceted teams and navigated complex legal and regulatory environments throughout her career. Samantha's expertise will be invaluable as we continue to innovate and grow our global marketplace while ensuring we meet our legal and ethical responsibilities. Her passion for empowering small businesses aligns perfectly with eBay's purpose, and I'm excited to welcome her to the team.”
Wellington will certainly have her hands full navigating the complex legal and regulatory issues currently facing eBay as well as the strategy struggles since Chief Business Strategy Officer Stefanie Jay departed earlier this year, with the company now looking to pivot back to a small business and consumer seller focus and a new addition to the Board of Directors focused on growth.
Details were not immediately available regarding Wellington's compensation package, including salary, signing bonus (if any) and stock options, but more information will likely be revealed in future SEC filings or other corporate communications.
Stay tuned for updates in this developing story.
