New York, NY: Former Ogilvy & Mather executives Shona Seifert and Thomas Early have both been sentenced to prison for their roles in defrauding the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).
Seifert was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined $125,000 dollars. Early was sentenced to 14 months in prison and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. Both executives were convicted in February of ten counts of conspiracy and filing false claims against the federal government.
The White House Drug Czar’s office hired Ogilvy & Mather in 1998 to create public service announcements for its $1.2 billion “National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.” The duo were later found to have altered employees’ time-sheets, billing the ONDCP for more than 3,100 hours worth of work that had not taken place.
Ogilvy & Mather had previously agreed in 2002 to a civil settlement with the US Justice Department regarding the overbilling.
Despite the scandal, the White House continued to pay the firm to produce its anti-drug public service announcements until last year. A four-year evaluation of the federal ad campaign, performed by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, found that it fails to alter teens’ perceptions of marijuana or reduce its use among young people.
For more information, please contact either Paul Armentano or Keith Stroup of NORML at (202) 483-5500.