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U.S. eBay employees in criminal probe
Prosecutors in the US have launched a criminal probe into whether eBay Inc employees took confidential information from classified ad website Craigslist as eBay sought to build a rival service. It has been well documented that the two rivals have been feuding for years in civil court over allegations that eBay took a stake in Craigslist and then misappropriated confidential information while it planned its own classifieds site. EBay launched classified ad service Kijiji in the United States in 2007.
The subpoena seeks information regarding several eBay employees, including founder and Chairman Pierre Omidyar and Joshua Silverman, the former Skype chief executive who served as eBay's representative on Craigslist's board. The subpoena, issued last week by a federal grand jury in San Jose, California, on behalf of the U.S. Justice Department, seeks a number of information and documents.
Many of the requests in the subpoena match word for word language in another civil lawsuit filed by Craigslist against eBay. That litigation in a San Francisco court is ongoing. The subpoena also seeks documents about allegations that Silverman provided an eBay employee "with insider information about Craigslist management and provided recommendations to the eBay team responsible for the launch of Kijiji."
It was not clear on Tuesday how many companies or individuals have received subpoenas, and no one has been charged with any criminal wrongdoing.
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