Account

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A Bahamian businessman testified yesterday that he served as the middleman as hundreds of thousands of dollars were swiftly and routinely wired in and out of an offshore bank account for a firm whose principals are on trial for visa fraud. Testifying in U.S. District Court here, Howell Jones said the wire transfers, most of them in the $400,000 range, were so frequent that officials at one bank raised concerns that the actions appeared to resemble a money laundering scheme.

A resolution approved last night by a City Council committee calls on the Baltimore Police Department to give $200,000 to two police benevolent associations from an account that has been untouched since former Commissioner Edward T. Norris was discovered using it to pay for expensive dinners and romantic liaisons. The resolution was a compromise reached after debate among police and city officials who want to maintain control of the account and representatives of two groups representing active and retired police officers -- both of which wanted to use the money to assist officers in need.

Thousands of dollars are missing from a checking account that the PTA at Chesapeake Terrace Elementary School in Edgemere established to buy library books and pay for school assemblies, the group's president said yesterday. Richard Petrey, the PTA president at Chesapeake Terrace, said the organization has asked Baltimore County police to investigate what happened to the "probably thousands, not tens of thousands" of dollars. He will turn over the group's books to police today, he said.

Eisner Communications has won the domestic advertising account for US Airways Group Inc., the agency said yesterday. The new business is estimated to be worth $20 million in annual billings. "It's been said in our industry that you know you've arrived when you win yourself an airline or a car account," said Steven C. Eisner, president and chief executive of Eisner Communications. "Clearly it's a milestone account. This kind of thing doesn't land out of thin air." The Baltimore firm was awarded the business after a review of several agencies, including the incumbent, McCann-Erickson New York.

The FBI has arrested four people and is seeking a fifth in connection with an elaborate scheme in which forged documents defrauded an Ellicott City bank of $120,000, authorities said.Investigators said the money was withdrawn in bank checks during five days in early March, when five people went to the Commercial and Farmers Bank of Ellicott City and posed as savings account holders.At each visit, a person asked to withdraw money from an account and requested payment in a treasurer's bank check, the FBI's Jim Dearborn said.

The Go RVing Coalition, one of Eisner Communications Inc.'s five largest clients, announced yesterday that it will put the marketing account out for review in March. Baltimore-based Eisner has worked for six years with The Go RVing Coalition, a national trade association representing manufacturers, suppliers and dealers in the recreational vehicle industry. As the incumbent, Eisner will be an automatic finalist for the account, worth about $15 million annually, and will be considered along with two other agencies, said Steven C. Eisner, president and chief executive of Eisner Communications.

The penthouse mezzanine at Baltimore's GKV Communications has a harbor view and an outdoor deck - ideal office space, but for one thing: No employee has ever used it. The advertising and marketing firm has never had enough people to fill the space. Those who might have sat there were abruptly laid off when GKV lost its biggest account shortly before moving in two years ago. But now GKV has landed an account large enough to help fill its office. Atlantic Coast Airlines, a new carrier based at Washington Dulles International Airport, recently chose the firm in a national search to create a $30 million campaign to advertise the upstart discount carrier.

For the second Friday in a row, employees were laid off yesterday at Trahan, Burden & Charles Inc., bringing to seven the people who have been let go since the agency lost its $30 million account with Micron Electronics Inc.Four employees were dismissed on Feb. 27 and three yesterday, according to Sandra S. Hillman, executive vice president. Another two employees have resigned from the advertising and public relations firm to take other jobs, she said.The layoffs are the first in the company's 24-year history, Hillman said.

The Baltimore advertising firm Gray, Kirk/VanSant has won a contract to represent Value Rent-A-Car, an account worth about $8 million in annual billings.Value will be the company's second largest client, behind Choice Hotels International. That account has annual billings of about $20 million.A subsidiary of Mitsubishi Motors, Value Rent-A-Car has offices in 49 resort locations around the country, with 35 sites in Florida alone."This is a big win for us," Roger Gray, president and chief executive officer of the advertising company, said in a prepared statement.

Federal prosecutors brought additional charges against former Baltimore police Commissioner Edward T. Norris yesterday, alleging that Norris violated tax law by failing to report as income money from an off-the-books department account used for personal expenditures. A four-count indictment in December charged Norris with misappropriating more than $20,000 from a loosely structured expense account to pay for lavish meals and gifts and to finance extramarital affairs while he headed the city Police Department.