More than a year after Cienega High teens waited in a dark parking lot for buses that never came to whisk them off to Disneyland for a $40,000 senior trip, the Tucson-area families might get their money back. 

A Maricopa County judge this month ordered a Texas-based travel company responsible for the scam to return $40,000 dollars to the families, plus pay $400,000 in penalties.

The 80 teens and their chaperones paid $500 each in May 2017 to travel company EB Worldwide LLC for a four-day excursion to Disneyland.

George Barragan, who ran EB Worldwide, promised the money would cover buses, hotels, theme park admission and some meals.

It wasn’t until the Cienega High group waited for the buses for over an hour in the dead of night that they realized they were victims of a scam. A promised refund never came.

The failed trip set off a year-long quest for justice, with parents and students creating a far-reaching campaign to expose Barragan. 

Attorney General lawsuit gets results 

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced a consumer-fraud lawsuit in August against Barragan.

Justice has been swift since then: A Maricopa County judge ordered Barragan and EB Worldwide to pay more than $450,000 in penalties on Nov. 14, according to court documents.

“From May 2016 to present, EB Worldwide, LLC, and George Barragan violated the ACFA (Arizona Consumer Fraud Act) by engaging in deceptive and unfair practice of refusing to refund prepayments for goods and services that were not provided as promised,” reads the court order. 

The judgment requires Barragan to pay $40,000 back to the Cienega High families, or about $500 per family.  

Much of the money, $400,000, will go to the state’s consumer-fraud revolving fund, which covers the attorney general’s operating expenses. Another chunk of about $11,000 will go to cover fees from the case incurred by the attorney general. 

“Consumers who are looking forward to a vacation can be highly susceptible to deceptive business practices because they may not know what signs to look for or what questions to ask,” Brnovich said in a press release. 

Will the money materialize?  

Matthew Maxwell, one of the Cienega High teens scheduled to go on the Disneyland trip, is now a sophomore at Pima Community College. The 20-year-old said that while the court order is great news, he’s skeptical that they’ll ever see the money. 

Maxwell said Barragan’s location isn’t known, at least to the Cienega High group, and he believes the operator is in Mexico. 

“It’s essentially like giving a Nigerian prince your cash,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if they can’t find where he is.” 

A few calls to phone numbers linked to Barragan were disconnected or went to voicemail. An email sent by The Arizona Republic to an address associated with him bounced back. It also appears Barragan never hired an attorney to represent him in court nor did he answer the complaint, according to court documents. 

A Senior Grad Trips website shows Barragan as the author of several blog posts advertising different trips to Hawaii, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta and other destinations. One post is dated Nov. 14. The site even advertises a Disneyland grad night trip.

Yelp reviews for a company of the same name based in Selma, Texas, warn of similar problems. Some of the reviews are from Cienega High parents, others appear to come from different schools scammed out of similar trips.

Last year, the Cienega families discovered videos of Barragan partying in Mexico just days after he stranded the students. 

In the videos, the 43-year-old travel operator dances with young women and remarks how drunk they are, according to recordings a parent made of a Snapchat account named Senior Grad Trips shared with The Republic.

After the Cienega parents raised their concerns online, high schools in other states reported similar problems with trips booked with Barragan. 

A community comes together 

Maxwell said he was looking forward to the Disneyland trip after a senior year rife with heartache. Earlier that year, his best friend died by suicide, he said. 

The empty parking lot, the ensuing hours of confusion: it was all a “bummer,” Maxwell said. 

The silver lining? Less than 24 hours after the let-down in the parking lot, locals came together to donate thousands to fund a new, pared-down trip. 

“The community all coming together and stuff — it shows that our community cares a lot,” Maxwell said. 

Maxwell is hoping to transfer to the University of Arizona soon and study computer science.

From the ordeal, he said he’s learned about the beauty of kindness from others. He also said he’s learned another nugget of wisdom:  

“Don’t expect everything to go according to plan in life,” he said. “Bad things may happen to good people when people have worked hard.” 

Rebekah Sanders and Kimberly Rapanut contributed to this article. 

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