Seifert, Early Found Guilty on All Counts

NEW YORK Former Ogilvy & Mather executives Shona Seifert and Thomas Early today were found guilty of plotting to overbill the government's $1 billion Office of National Drug Control Policy account to cover a $3 million revenue shortfall on the business.Seifert and Early were found guilty on all 10 counts against them: one for conspiring to defraud the government, and the rest for filing false claims.The jury's verdict came on its second day of deliberations.The pair had pled not guilty. The trial was held here in U.S. District Court.Seifert, a former executive group director at the WPP Group agency, put her head in her hands as guilty verdicts were read for each of the counts. Early, the shop's former financial director, sat impassively.After the jury was polled individually for their verdicts, Judge Richard Berman thanked them for their services over the past two-plus weeks of the trial, complimenting them on their promptness and efficiency in moving the process along. The judge set a sentencing date of May 16 and then addressed the defendants, saying, "It's in your best interests, in my opinion, to cooperate with the probation department." The prosecution then requested Seifert be fitted with an electronic monitoring device until sentencing because she is a foreign national. Her attorney Greg Craig leapt up, saying such a move was unnecessary because Seifert was a "model participant" throughout the process. "Her center of gravity is here," said Craig. "There is absolutely no risk of flight." Judge Richard Berman agreed. "I don't think we need to go to electronic monitoring," he said.Seifert and Early remain free on bail.By then Seifert's husband, John Seifert, pale and shaken by the verdict, had joined her at the defense table. They sat huddled arm in arm as Seifert tried to reassure him.Seifert and Early could each receive up to five years in prison. Both defendants and their lawyers declined comment as they left the courtroom today.During testimony in court last week, both Seifert and Early insisted they did not ask Ogilvy employees to doctor timesheets to fraudulently increase the number of hours billed to the ONDCP. Early did concede that some timesheets appeared to contain inaccuracies.Seifert for two years has been president of Omnicom Group's TBWA\Chiat\Day in New York. She took a three-month leave from the agency starting on Jan. 1 to prepare for the trial.Ogilvy late on Tuesday issued this statement: "Many of the events described during the trial are completely inconsistent with Ogilvy's core values. Consequently, while no criminal charges were brought against Ogilvy itself, and the charges against the former employees related only to a single government contract with the New York agency, Ogilvy has taken this matter very seriously."We believe the uncompromising way in which Ogilvy addressed the issues related to this contract clearly demonstrates our commitment to maintaining strict ethical standards. When we realized in 2000 that errors in reporting labor time occurred, we promptly and voluntarily reported them to all relevant federal authorities including the Justice Department. Our civil settlement in 2002 relating to the billing missteps voluntarily eliminated any billing for which there was not reliable backup."In addition, Ogilvy upgraded its accounting system to create the most rigorous accounting compliance program in the industry, which includes expanded ethics training for employees, a dedicated ethics officer and an ethics hotline for employees. We have no other comments on the verdicts."

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Seifert, Early Found Guilty on All Counts

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