Ex-Club Sushi owners take deal
The married owners of Club Sushi restaurants in downtown Hermosa and Hollywood have been placed on three years probation and ordered to work 90 days of community service, after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge of making a false credit application, their attorneys said.
In addition, Gregory Alan and his wife, Melissa Downing-Alan, have paid $60,000 in restitution to two vendors.
The couple had been accused of using their business partners’ personal information to get loans and credit with banks and creditors, and to secure credit with suppliers of restaurant equipment and appliances. Prosecutors initially charged them with forgery and grand theft.
Jeffrey Gray, attorney for Gregory Alan, said the couple accepted the plea arrangement to avoid a trial on eight felony counts.
Gray said the couple was accused of signing the names of others to credit applications, or using previously signed applications without permission.
“The Alans did not take any money and put it in their pocket. Their actions did nothing but benefit the investors,” Gray said.
“If the restaurant [in Hollywood] would have succeeded they would have been heroes, but the economy shot them down,” he said.
Bruce McGregor, attorney for Melissa Downing-Alan, said a dispute arose over credit extended by the vendors, who provided food and flatware. He contended that the matter should have been hashed out in a civil court, not a criminal one.
The Alans’ story began well, with their first Club Sushi in Hermosa becoming “one of the most successful restaurants in the South Bay,” McGregor said. Then, with investors attracted to their success, they opened the Hollywood eatery on expensive real estate at Sunset and Vine.
“They put all their money into it,” as did the investors, McGregor said.
“The last piece to getting it open was, of course, to have plates and food,” McGregor said.
At one point the two vendors agreed to extend further credit to the operation, but needed additional signatures on an application, the attorney said.
“The signatures were gotten and the application faxed, and the restaurant opened, much to everybody’s happiness and glee. Because of the economy the restaurant did not take off. It happened exactly at the wrong time,” McGregor said.
“When the restaurant folded everybody lost their money, including Gregory and Melissa,” said McGregor. He said the couple lost their house as well after having “sucked all the money” out of their “golden goose,” the Club Sushi in Hermosa.
The couple closed the restaurant on the corner of Hermosa and Pier Avenues late last year. ER