U.S. Army to Receive $15.5 Million Refund from Leo Burnett

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The Leo Burnett Advertising Agency will pay the U.S. Army over $15 million to settle a lawsuit related to irregular billing. Adweek reports that the case stems from a whistleblower lawsuit filed by some of the companies employees over the fact that they billed in-house work by subsidiaries as actually done by subcontractors. The rates for the subcontractor were higher leading to the overcharge. The company did not admit guilt as part of the settlement, stating that the Army was aware of the work and that the over charge was inadvertent. Leo Burnett lost the account in 2006 to another company.

Tags: Lawsuit, U.S. Army, Matthew Potter

Matthew Potter works supporting US Army aviation programs. He holds degrees in history as well as studying at the Defense Acquisition University. He has written for Seeking Alpha and at his own website, Defense Procurement News.

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Army gets $15.5 Million Refund from Leo Burnett

Tribble Ad Agency - 321 days 3 hours 33 minutes ago

The Leo Burnett Advertising Agency will pay the U.S. Army over $15 million to settle a lawsuit related to irregular billing. Your tax dollars at work people. We know the Ad Agency business wanted a bailout, but this is ridiculous. It’s almost as bad as Larry Flynt asking for a bailout. The difference is that it took a lawsuit for Leo Burnett...
Leo Burnett Pays $15.5 Million to Settle Allegations It Defrauded the U.S. Army

BNET Advertising - 321 days 7 hours 21 minutes ago

Leo Burnett has agreed to settle a whistleblower lawsuit alleging that it overbilled the U.S. Army by $20 million on its advertising account. The suit alleges that Burnett systematically overbilled the government by pretending that agencies it owned were independent subcontractors. It funnelled the excess billings into a secret account, and the...
Leo Burnett CEO Bernardin Oddly Silent on $15.5 Million Fraud Case

BNET Advertising - 288 days 18 minutes ago

Leo Burnett CEO Tom Bernardin submitted to an interview with Ad Age, but the chat featured a glaring ommission. Can you guess what it was? That's right. There was no mention of the agency settling its billings fraud case with the US Army for $15.5 million (back story here and here), which occured a couple of weeks earlier. So, to make the piece...
Leo Burnett Settles 'Army of One' Suit for $15.5M

Ad Age - 322 days 5 hours 15 minutes ago

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Leo Burnett will pay $15.5 million to settle allegations that it overbilled the U.S. Army for work on its "Army of One" campaign, the Justice Department announced today. The suit was a result of whistle-blowing by two former Burnett employees. Among the allegations in the lawsuit, filed in 2004: Burnett was treating the...
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