Thomas Early, former chief financial officer at the agency's New York office, and Shona Seifert, a former director of Ogilvy & Mather and now president of TBWA\Chiat\Day New York, face 11 charges relating to the Office of National Drug Control Policy advertising account and inaccurate billing by staff.
According to reports, the pair have each signed a $500,000 (拢265,000) bond and put up $25,000 in cash or collateral. They face prison terms and fines if found guilty of the charges.
The prosecution is arguing that staff at Ogilvy working on the anti-drugs account were told to alter timesheets and to note that they had put in a certain percentage of their time working on the account, regardless of whether or not they had. The pair are also charged with attempting to cover up the fraud.
Early and Seifert have said they are innocent of all charges. Ogilvy & Mather has not been charged as a firm. The agency settled a civil suit with the government by making a $1.8m payment. Early resigned from his role at Ogilvy the day after he was charged.
A third executive, Peter Chrisanthopoulos, has already pleaded guilty to falsifying time sheets and instructing another member of staff to do the same. He was a former president of broadcasting and programming at O&M and later at sister WPP Group agency MindShare, but left in 2000 to join the television company Pappas Telecasting as chief operating officer for marketing and sales. He resigned from the company on January 12.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .