JUST SAY DOUGH

A $684 million government advertising campaign to stop kids from doing
drugs turned into a bad trip for prestigious advertising agency Ogilvy
& Mather yesterday when two Manhattan execs were busted for allegedly
ripping off the feds.

Thomas Early, the director of finance at the global giant's Midtown
office, and Shona Seifert, a former senior partner who directed the
national anti-drug campaign, were indicted in Manhattan federal court
for allegedly cheating the government out of nearly $1 million.

Interim Manhattan U.S. Attorney David Kelley charged that the execs
directed 16 staffers to lie on time sheets about their work on the
campaign so the firm could overcharge the White House Office of
National Drug Control Policy.

They face up to 55 years in prison if convicted of one count of
conspiracy and 10 counts of making false claims.

The arrests are an embarrassing black eye for Ogilvy & Mather, part of
the world's third largest advertising company.

A spokesman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy said Ogilvy
would be stripped of the lucrative contract at the end of September.

The anti-drug campaign, awarded to Ogilvy in December 1998, has
featured an array of magazine and TV ads.

A statement issued by the company yesterday said it was "unprepared
for the complex and unique federal record-keeping requirements."

"Unfortunately, our performance . . . did not meet federal
requirements or our own commitment to maintaining the highest ethical
standards," the statement said.

The company settled civil charges for $1.8 million last
year.

The feds accuse Early, 48, of Rockville Centre, L.I., and Seifert, 43,
of Southport, Conn., of engineering "an extensive scheme to defraud
the United States government by falsely and fraudulently inflating the
labor costs" from May 1999 through April 2000.

Early's lawyer, Laurence Urgenson, said he expected his client would
be "completely vindicated."

Seifert, who is now president of Manhattan advertising firm
TBWA/Chiat/Day, said she had never "committed any criminal misdeed of
any nature."