San Diego

A judge sentenced the owners of a travel agency, whose cash flow problems caused 185 junior high school students to be briefly stranded on the East Coast, to 2 1/2 years in federal prison.

Anthony and Leo Casias, twin brothers, were allowed to remain free until their sentences begin July 9.

U. S. District Judge John Rhoades also ordered the 47-year-old owners of the bankrupt East/West Travel & Tours to pay $284,499 to students, parents and teachers who paid for travel arrangements they never received.

The brothers pleaded guilty Feb. 26 to conspiring to commit mail fraud.

In May, 1988, the students and teachers from Emerald Junior High School discovered while on the East Coast that hotels and airlines would not honor their reservations. The Valley Union School District spent its own money to pay for their hotel rooms, and American Airlines donated the plane rides home.

The Casias brothers told the judge they were sorry for what had happened, but insisted they never intended for it to occur. Anthony Casias said it stemmed from a sudden cash flow problem.

Their attorney, Michael McCabe, told Rhoades that the Mission Valley travel agency was “badly managed” but “was not a Ponzi scheme.” Assistant U. S. Atty. David Katz said the owners were “borrowing money from Peter to pay Paul.”

The judge said the offenses sounded similar to the brothers’ 1983 bank larceny convictions, noting that “except in this case, the scam was on children.”