US: Two former executives of WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather entered not guilty pleas to charges stemming from a grand jury indictment surrounding the agency's work for the U.S. Government's Office of National Drug Policy.
Appearing before the U.S. District Court Shona Seifert, formerly senior partner and executive group director at WPP Group's Ogilvy in New York, and Thomas Early, who has resigned as senior partner and director of finance for the agency, both pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States.
The government alleges that the two, along with at least two unnamed co-conspirators and 16 employees, were part of a scheme to overbill the government to cover a $3 million revenue shortfall in 1999 that prosecutors say was discovered by the agency's internal analysis. Adweek Online
