Pot times July 15, 2005

Former Ogilvy Executives Sentenced for Overbilling

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1114/a03.html
Newshawk: Richard Lake

Pubdate: Fri, 15 Jul 2005
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2005 The New York Times Company
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)

FORMER OGILVY EXECUTIVES SENTENCED FOR OVERBILLING

Two former senior executives of the flagship New York office of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, part of the WPP Group, have been sentenced and fined after being found guilty of overbilling a federal antidrug agency for advertising work.

Shona Seifert, who had been senior partner and executive group director at Ogilvy New York, was sentenced yesterday by a federal district judge in Manhattan to 18 months.  She also must pay a $125,000 fine.  Additionally, the judge, Richard Berman, ordered Ms.  Seifert to write a code of ethics for the advertising industry.

On Wednesday, Judge Berman sentenced Ms.  Seifert's co-defendant, Thomas Early, a former senior partner and finance director at Ogilvy New York, to 14 months and ordered him to pay a $10,000 fine.

Ms.  Seifert and Mr.  Early were found guilty in February on all 10 counts against them: one count of conspiracy and nine of making false claims.  The charges stemmed from work Ogilvy did for the Office of National Drug Control Policy in 1999 and 2000; the indictment accused them of ordering employees to alter time sheets and other documents to make up for a shortfall in anticipated revenue from the account.

Ogilvy New York was not a party to the case because it agreed in 2002 to pay $1.8 million to settle civil accusations.  The office handled the antidrug assignment from 1998 to 2004, when it was shifted to another agency.

Ms.  Seifert and Mr.  Early were charged in January 2004 and pleaded not guilty.  He resigned from Ogilvy New York the day after Ms.  Seifert left in 2002 to become president of the New York office of TBWA/Chiat/Day, part of the TBWA Worldwide division of the Omnicom Group; she resigned after her conviction.