Abercrombie & Kent, well-known travel company, is being sued on charges that they misled investors into purchasing a membership to a luxury vacation club that was not operated by the tour company as the investors thought.
 
Victims of the dupe report that they lost their money ($100,000 to $1.3 million) after the true managers of the vacation club went bankrupt. The plaintiffs state that their decision to invest was largely determined by the fact that Abercrombie & Kent was involved.
 
Attorney Brian Kabateck said, "The reason most of my clients bought into this club was because A&K has an excellent reputation, they assumed A&K was managing it. These people were misled and they've lost their money."
 
Apparently A&K permitted Complete Retreats and Preferred Retreats to market destination resorts with the Abercrombie & Kent brand.
 
Abercrombie & Kent refused to reply to the allegations, but reported that the company had terminated the relationship with Preferred Retreats and Complete Retreats two years ago in June 2005. Also the company was required to inform investors and members that A&K were in no way involved with the running of the destination clubs.
 
The lawsuit charges intentional misrepresentation, negligence and violation of the California unfair competition law. The plaintiffs are asking for an undisclosed amount of damages.