Claims Against Rancho P.V. Travel Agency Top $1 Million : Bankruptcy: Firm’s sudden closure upset travel plans for hundreds of clients. It is called one of the largest travel agency failures in history.

More than 400 former clients and creditors of the defunct Apollo Travel Agency in Rancho Palos Verdes have filed claims totaling $1.4 million, but bankruptcy court trustees say the chances are slim that the money will be recovered.

The total is four times the losses initially estimated when the once-successful travel business suddenly closed its doors last summer, disrupting the travel plans of hundreds of clients, including honeymooners and a large group planning to celebrate one couple’s golden wedding anniversary with a cruise to Alaska.

When Apollo owner Karen Sue Reindl disappeared briefly in July, she left a note on the office door at 23135 S. Western Ave. saying “Apollo Travel Closed, Filing Bankruptcy.”

The next month, Reindl filed two petitions in federal bankruptcy court, seeking to get all debts against her and the defunct company discharged, records show. She listed assets of $77,000 and debts totaling more than $1 million, making this one of the largest travel agency failures ever, according to the American Society of Travel Agents.

In court appearances, she told bankruptcy referees that the Gulf War’s impact on travel and the recession had hurt her business, officials said.

Fraud investigators from the county Sheriff’s Department report they are looking into allegations that Reindl was illegally dipping into customers’ trip deposits.

Reindl was not available for comment and the attorney listed on her bankruptcy papers did not return repeated telephone calls.

Apollo had been a member of the American Society of Travel Agents from 1974 until last year when Reindl let her membership lapse. The watchdog trade association had received no complaints against Apollo during those years, a spokesman said.

Creditors say they have been warned by court officials that they are not likely to recover any of their money.

“We got a letter telling us there was no point in putting in a claim because it appears there are no assets available to pay us,” said Mary Shaw. She and her husband, she said, lost $10,000 they paid for a cruise.

Bankruptcy court files list 83 pages of Apollo creditors, most of them customers with claims that range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. Most had either made deposits on trips or prepaid for vacations.

Perhaps the hardest hit were the 50 friends and family of Manny and Nel Fernandez of Lomita who had planned to celebrate the Fernandez’s golden wedding anniversary on an Alaska cruise in July. The group lost about $75,000 to Apollo, Nel Fernandez said.

James Dumas, the court-appointed trustee in Reindl’s personal bankruptcy case, said: “The chances that anyone will get anything back are bleak.”

The trustee’s task is to discover any assets that Reindl may have and try to recover money for the hundreds of angry claimants.

“I’ve seldom seen people so furious,” Dumas said, describing the creditors who showed up when he summoned Reindl for a credit hearing last week.