PR Society Keeps Mainly Quiet on Its Ex-President

The public relations business seems to be having trouble relating to the public.

Late last month, the president of the 13,000-member Public Relations Society of America resigned.

Letters sent out to inform members of the Aug. 29 resignation of Anthony M. Franco failed to mention that he had been charged last month by the Securities and Exchange Commission with insider trading in a client’s stock.

Franco, who runs Michigan’s largest public relations firm, settled the civil complaint by promising the SEC that he would not engage in the alleged actions again. He neither admitted nor denied the charges.

The Wall Street Journal said in a story published Friday that Franco did not tell most of the PRSA’s leadership about the charges against him. The directors of the public relations society found out about it by reading the newspapers, the Journal said.

Franco said he has not discussed the case on the recommendation of his lawyer.

Even after the investigation came to light, the PRSA, regarded as the nation’s premier organization of communicators, didn’t distribute a press release announcing the charges against Franco or his resignation.

Calls to the PRSA by the Associated Press seeking comment on the Journal article were not returned Friday.

The group’s directors are studying how to deal with the matter, the Journal said, pending a meeting next month.

In a statement read by his secretary, Gloria Markowicz, Franco disputed unspecified portions of the Journal article, but said he saw no reason to make substantive comments on it. Markowicz said Franco could not be reached directly because he was en route to Cincinnati.