• New York Post, Thursday, December 14, 2006 11:30 AM

There are some new charges in a lawsuit against Omnicom Group that the advertising agency holding company arranged deals to hide losses and meet Wall Street's profit expectations.

Documents seem to show that the company sold its stakes in failing Internet ventures to outfits controlled by its top execs to clean up its earnings reports, according to attorneys for shareholders suing the company. The new allegations come in the suit, filed in June 2002, and charge that Omnicom created Seneca, an entity it claims was used to keep other Web investments gone sour off the books.

But Omnicom's lawyers argued that it properly accounted for the Seneca deal and two auditing firms signed off on it, including Arthur Andersen. An Omnicom spokeswoman declines to comment.

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