The Region - News from Dec. 3, 1986

The owner of a Venice fish market was sentenced to six years in prison by a Los Angeles federal judge in connection with a fraudulent credit card scheme. Jack Gallo, 44, owner of Gallo’s New York Lobster Exchange, had pleaded guilty to conspiring with his wife, Gail, 35, in a complicated plot in which customers’ credit card numbers were copied on blank forms and cashed in at credit processing houses. Federal prosecutor Richard A. Small of the Los Angeles Organized Crime Strike Force urged U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon to impose the six-year sentence on Gallo, the maximum allowable under an agreement with Gallo in exchange for his guilty plea. Under the agreement, accepted by Kenyon, Gail Gallo was placed on five years’ probation. The judge gave Gallo until Jan. 2 to train new partners in his fish restaurant before surrendering to federal officials.