A former security operations manager for eBay Inc. was sentenced to 18 months in prison Tuesday for his role in an extensive campaign to terrorize and intimidate the editor and publisher of an online newsletter... Authorities say Cooke, who was senior manager of Security Operations for eBay’s Global Security Team, conspired with other employees to terrorize the couple because company executives were upset about an article about a lawsuit filed by eBay accusing Amazon of poaching its sellers.

... Prosecutors say Cooke, a retired Santa Clara, California, police captain, attended a meeting at eBay headquarters, where the employees plotted sending harassing anonymous messages to one of the victims over Twitter. They say Cooke also tried to obstruct police’s investigation into the scheme. Cooke’s lawyer wrote in court documents that his role in the campaign was “limited” and that he tried to warn his colleagues not to send threatening messages or disturbing deliveries.

The couple filed a lawsuit against the Silicon Valley giant last week, accusing it of engaging in a conspiracy to “intimidate, threaten to kill, torture, terrorize, stalk and silence them” in order to “stifle their reporting on eBay.”

In a statement responding to that lawsuit, eBay apologized to the couple and stressed that it fully cooperated with authorities during their inquiry.