Fleishman Hillard Inc

A federal judge on Monday delayed sentencing for former public relations executive Douglas R. Dowie, but not before making comments favorable to both sides in the fraud case. Dowie was convicted last fall of masterminding a long-running overbilling scheme that cost city taxpayers at least $6 million in unearned fees to public relations giant Fleishman-Hillard, whose local office he headed. Before joining the firm, Dowie was managing editor of the Daily News of Los Angeles.

Former public relations and newspaper executive Douglas R. Dowie was sentenced Tuesday to 3 1/2 years in federal prison for defrauding city taxpayers, adding a painful coda to a career that once scaled the heights of Los Angeles media influence and political power. U.S. District Judge Gary Feess told Dowie that he had abused the public's trust and lost his "moral compass" in masterminding a scheme to overbill city government for consulting services.

Former public relations executive Douglas R. Dowie, convicted in May of bilking the city out of $6 million, has sued to try to force former employer Fleishman-Hillard Inc. to pay his legal bills. Dowie alleges the firm withdrew a promise to pay his $3 million in legal fees after he was indicted, according to the suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Two former public relations executives are to go on trial Tuesday on federal charges of conspiring to pad their bills to the city of Los Angeles, bilking taxpayers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The case is the first criminal prosecution in an ongoing joint state and federal "pay-to-play" investigation into accusations that local politicians traded city contracts for campaign contributions.

The first criminal trial arising from the ongoing "pay-to-play" investigation into Los Angeles city contracting opened Tuesday with dozens of prospective jurors completing questionnaires. Twelve of those panelists will eventually decide the fate of two former public relations executives accused of conspiring to overbill the city a total of about $325,000 in 2000, 2002 and 2003. Douglas R. Dowie, once a political fundraiser and confidant of former Mayor James K.

Two former public relations executives "lied and stole" from clients, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, padding their bills with thousands of hours never worked, a federal prosecutor alleged Thursday. "It is not a complicated case," Assistant U.S. Atty. Cheryl Murphy told jurors in her opening statement. "It's third-grade math and first-grade morals." Douglas R. Dowie, once a political fundraiser and confidant of former Mayor James K.

One martini was all it took. Slipped into a $300,000 bill from a public relations firm with close ties to Mayor James K. Hahn, the cocktail, imbibed by Hahn deputy Troy Edwards, didn't pass Department of Water and Power employee Randy S. Howard's smell test, he testified Friday. He refused to approve paying for the drink, and was moved out of his job as DWP director of corporate communications.

A former Fleishman-Hillard vice president testified Tuesday that she padded the public relations firm's bills to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power by as much as $50,000 a month. Monique Moret, who is testifying under a promise of immunity from prosecution, told jurors that she acted at the direction of her boss, John Stodder, who told her that the orders came from Douglas Dowie, the Los Angeles office's general manager. Why? Assistant U.S. Atty. Adam Kamenstein asked Moret.

A former Fleishman-Hillard employee who testified she padded bills to the city on orders from her former bosses admitted Wednesday to making misstatements to investigators, but held firm to her basic story of fraud by the international public relations firm. Monique Moret, testifying under a grant of immunity, was pummeled over five hours of cross-examination by a lawyer for John Stodder, on trial in the overbilling scheme that cost taxpayers almost $6 million.

A second worker has identified Fleishman-Hillard Inc. executive John Stodder as the man who issued instructions to falsify public relations billings to the city, a federal jury was told Friday. Candice Campbell, who worked in the international public relations firm's Los Angeles office for 10 years, testified Friday against Stodder and his former boss, Douglas Dowie, who are on trial for conspiracy and fraud.