The Maine Attorney General's Office announced Monday that it has reached a settlement with the owners of the Pavilion Night Club and banquet facility in Portland.

The Pavilion, which was owned by First Class Enterprises LLC, closed abruptly in February 2007, leaving several local high schools without a place to hold their proms after club owners had taken security deposits.

"I am pleased that most of the money is being returned to those who made deposits to the Pavilion in late 2006. While I would have preferred that the consumers had received a full refund of their deposits, the complex business arrangement entered into by James Albert, Lisa Oldakowski, and Paul Goltzbein compounded the difficulty in resolving this case," Attorney General Steven Rowe said in a prepared statement.

The agreement not only returns most of the money, it also prohibits the club's owners from taking deposits for good or services unless they have adequate cash reserves, Rowe said.

The settlement requires that Golzbien and Albert each pay $5,000 to the attorney general's office, funds that will go toward security deposit refunds. Oldakowski must pay $1,000.

Though the state did not identify any of the schools, previous news reports indicated that Thornton Academy and Biddeford, Cape Elizabeth and Sanford high schools had made deposits with the Pavilion.