El Cajon

George Straza and two former employees of Jet Air went on trial Tuesday for fraud, with Straza’s attorney telling jurors the defendants did “nothing more than conduct business.”

Straza, 57, of Rancho Santa Fe, owned Jet Air Inc., which manufactured and refurbished jet engine parts and aerospace specialty items when the corporation was located in El Cajon.

On trial in U.S. District Court with him is his former corporate secretary, Alice Skinner, 57, of Lakeside, and his former vice president, Joao Jaime Costa, 50, of San Diego.

Straza has hired attorney Howard Weitzman to defend him. Weitzman won acquittal of John DeLorean in his cocaine and fraud trials.

The defendants are charged with conspiracy to defraud Pratt & Whitney, a government contractor, by charging it for 90 jet engine burner cans that in fact it sold to Aerospace Innovators Ltd. of Manhattan Beach. They are also accused of mail fraud for allegedly sending Pratt & Whitney false billings, and of using unauthorized blueprints.

Assistant U.S. Atty. George Hardy said in his opening statement that Jet Air made $239,400 on the deals.

Straza’s attorney countered in his opening statement that the defendants did not know such acts were a crime. He said they did “nothing more than conduct business” and that their activity “does not rise to the level of criminal conduct.”

“The government got the number of burner cans they ordered and paid what they were supposed to pay,” said Weitzman.

In an unrelated case, Straza, Costa, and the firm itself are charged of conspiracy to defraud the United States, making false statements, and theft of government property. No trial date has been set following an August, 1986, indictment.

Straza, Costa and Skinner remain free on bail.