Troubled Cendant Unit Gets New Managers

Cendant Corp., the franchiser and direct-marketing company stung by charges of accounting fraud, on Monday named new managers at the division where the alleged misdeeds occurred.

Cendant Vice Chairman Michael Monaco will become chief executive of the Alliance Marketing division, which operates consumer discount clubs.

David Johnson, executive vice president of finance, will replace Monaco as chief financial officer.

Anthony Manchaca and John Fullmer, the division’s former co-chairmen and CEOs, resigned. Manchaca and Fullmer, alumni of the firm formerly known as CUC International Inc., will advise Cendant as consultants into 1999.

Shares of Parsippany-based Cendant, formed by the merger of CUC and HFS Inc., fell 65% this year on allegations that CUC had reported revenue that didn’t exist at Alliance Marketing, its biggest unit. Chairman Henry Silverman, the former head of HFS, on Monday put HFS employees in charge of the division.

Three other executives in the division will also leave after a brief transition.

Cendant owns such brands as the Ramada hotels and Avis car rental agencies.

John Chidsey was named chairman and CEO of Cendant’s Insurance/Wholesale unit, which markets accidental-death insurance and other financial services. He had been Alliance Marketing’s president and chief operating officer since April.

Cendant also gave its general counsel, James Buckman, the additional title of vice chairman.

In July, former CUC Chairman Walter Forbes resigned as chairman of Cendant along with nine board members, bowing to pressure from angry investors.

Cendant shares rose 44 cents to close at $11.88 on the New York Stock Exchange.