Cardillo Travel Owners Told to Pay Back Wages

A Culver City municipal court judge has ordered the husband and wife team that ran Cardillo Travel Systems when it suddenly collapsed 2 1/2 years ago to pay 27 former employees $53,000 in back wages.

In accepting their no-contest pleas, Judge Ronald Combast also placed A. Walter Rognlien, 77, and his wife, Esther Lawrence Rognlien, 47, on probation for one year.

A. Walter Rognlien additionally pleaded no contest to a single count of failing to pay state withholding taxes. Assistant Dist. Atty. Wendy Forward said Rognlien agreed to pay the state $74,277, the total amount outstanding.

“What we started out wanting--and what we got--was restitution,” Forward said. The Rognliens entered their pleas and were sentenced Tuesday.

Philip Fife, attorney for the Rognliens, said the couple pleaded no contest because they thought Walter Rognlien was too old to withstand the rigors of a trial.

Fife said the Rognliens have already paid some of the ex-employees and that others have accepted Cardillo property, such as company cars, as payment.

Rognlien acquired Cardillo Travel in 1956 and built it into one of the largest travel agencies in the country. It is now in bankruptcy court proceedings but at its zenith in 1981 served as the centerpiece of Rognlien’s business empire, which included an auto parts distributorship, the Cozy Nook Fast Food restaurant chain and Icee USA, a shaved ice and syrup soft drink company.

But Rognlien’s mini-conglomerate was hurt by a family feud as well as dwindling profits at his travel agency. Some of his companies have been closed, and others, including Icee USA, have been sold.