Douglas Dowie [3], the former head of Fleishman-Hillard [4]'s Los Angeles office, was convicted "of 15 counts of conspiracy and fraud in a scheme to overbill city taxpayers [5] for public relations consulting services." His assistant and co-defendant was convicted on 12 related charges. At issue were contracts awarded by the city's Department of Water and Power, port and airport. The "combination of precise billing records and e-mails presented by prosecutors convinced jurors of the existence of the criminal enterprise," reports John Spano. Last year, the firm paid the city $6 million "to settle a civil lawsuit that alleged overbilling." The firm's Los Angeles general manager said that Fleishman-Hillard had taken "numerous steps to avoid the possibility of something like this ever occurring again." When the story first surfaced [6] in 2004, the Public Relations Society of America [7] reminded its members to "only charge for the work we do."