Federal agents "attempted to arrest" former Islanders
Owner John Spano yesterday at his Dallas home and office on
fraud charges "related to the purchase of the hockey team,"
according to Kessler, Fessenden & Valenti of NEWSDAY. The
agents did not locate Spano, but NEWSDAY reached him at a
resort in the Cayman Islands, "where he refused to comment
on his immediate plans." Spano: "How in the world did you
get this number? You call me again, and I'm going to take
matters into my own hands." A clerk at the resort said
Spano had been there for "several days." Kessler, Fessenden
& Valenti note sources who say that among the charges to be
made against Spano was that he "made fraudulent claims" to
obtain the $80M loan from Fleet Bank that he used to buy the
Islanders in April. According to sources involved in the
case, "the warrant charges him with three instances of
fraud: in making false statements to support the loan
application, in fraudulent acts to close the related deal to
buy the team's cable-TV rights, and for spending several
hundred thousand dollars of the team's money after
fraudulently assuming ownership" (NEWSDAY, 7/22).
MONEY TRAIL: NEWSDAY's Kessler, Fessenden & Valenti
report that prosecutors "had been focusing on four
transactions, according to sources and principals in the
deals." Spano's deal to pay Isles Owner John Pickett $16.8M
on April 7, the first payment on $85M due for the cable
rights to the team; his $80M loan from Fleet Bank, which was
to pay for ownership of the team; a "failed" deal with
foreign investors and "an investment deal in which Spano
allegedly bilked hockey star Mario Lemieux out of nearly a
million dollars" (NEWSDAY, 7/22).
