A top-performer rating, a company investigation, a firing - and then the references kicked in
A former eBay Motors manager alleges the company retaliated against him for reporting fraud - and then sabotaged his next job.
The federal complaint, filed September 25 in the Northern District of California, claims eBay violated the whistleblower protections of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act by systematically punishing the worker after he flagged what he believed were conflicts of interest and misleading financial reports to the company's board of directors.
The worker joined eBay Motors in 2007, according to the complaint. He was recognised as a strong performer, earning top-third ratings and a promotion to senior manager by 2009.
That year, the complaint alleges, a director in the division began soliciting personal favours from staff - including asking the worker to use his automotive engineering background to help the director's son's amateur racing career. The worker declined.
The director then brought in a former consultant who had previously had access to eBay's internal data while working on a study for the division, the complaint says. That consultant left his consulting firm and started his own auto-parts business selling on eBay's platform. According to the filing, the director then engaged the consultant as an external adviser to eBay Motors while the consultant simultaneously ran his competing operation - receiving what the complaint describes as "specialty pricing, waiver of...
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