• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 15, 2009

A tough day at the Radio Advertising Bureau got worse Thursday as someone tapped into President-CEO Jeff Haley's e-mail account and sent out an incendiary message claiming that several employees were grossly overpaid and the organization is "blatantly sexist." The snafu, which the RAB said was "a malicious attempt to damage" it, came after five employees were laid off.

The RAB said the fraudulent memo was "widely distributed to employees, business associates and the news media," and added that it is conducting an investigation to find out how it occurred.

"I'm told the people who had access to Jeff Haley's email were locked out as soon as they were told so who knows," an RAB spokesperson told MediaDailyNews, which asked MediaPost's technology department to analyze a copy of the fraudulent email sent to MDN from Haley's email account. The tech team said the email appeared authentic, but noted that the server had a "Helio" address, which is a 3G smart phone service, suggesting that someone might have gotten hold of Haley's mobile email account.

"We will explore any and all remedies to ensure that the individual, most likely a terminated employee, accepts responsibility for this damaging act," the RAB stated, adding that the content of the memo--which alleged that three top RAB executives were let go due to exorbitant salaries--is "entirely baseless." The fraudulent memo, however, disclosed the actual salaries of top RAB executives, and linked to a database containing the organization's federal tax exemption filings, which confirmed them.

The RAB said it did announce a 10% reduction in its staff "in response to the current economic environment and its impact on our 2009 budget," but did not disclose who was let go. The RAB spokesperson said the staff reduction amounted to five employees.

"In addition we will institute an immediate hiring and salary freeze until such time that conditions permit a different consideration," the statement continued. "These decisions were not easy to make and in no way reflect upon the performance of the RAB or any one of our highly valued colleagues. It is a simple necessity of our times that our organization shape itself to meet the needs of its members in the most efficient and effective way possible."

Editor's note: This story updates an earlier one (Email: Radio Ad Group Fires Three Top Execs) with new information.