owns the Islanders' TV rights under the name MSG Plus) that he was unsure if Spano was even using his own money to buy the team. Fischler also learned that Spano had promised the leader of an Islanders fan club a post as his "special advisor," but had not informed anyone within the Islanders organization about it. Spano had also offered the team presidency to former Islanders great Denis Potvin (who had reportedly planned to fire Milbury altogether), but negotiations collapsed after Spano apparently told Potvin that he was running out of money. Potvin later said that Spano had almost no staff, which was unusual for a multimillionaire. Not long after Spano's cover was blown, it emerged that Spano was also being sued by South African cookware maker Lenco Holdings. Spano had reached a deal with Lenco to sell its pots and pans to American buyers at Nordstrom; however, Nordstrom had never sold cookware, and the department code on the purported Nordstrom purchase order was for women's coats. Spano borrowed against the venture to secure a $1 million loan from Comerica. He was also being sued by a Dallas law firm after it was revealed that he had not paid them for legal work during his abortive run at the Stars. Had either of these suits come to light sooner, it is likely that Spano's pursuit of the Islanders would have been over before it started. Arrest and incarceration The Newsday report revealed that a federal investigation into Spano's affairs was well underway. On July 23, federal prosecutors on Long Island charged Spano with multiple counts of bank fraud, wire fraud and forgery. On August 14, federal prosecutors in Fort Worth indicted Spano with additional unrelated charges of bank fraud and wire fraud for bilking two lenders out of $5.1 million. Soon afterward, federal prosecutors in Boston (home to Fleet) began investigating Spano regarding the $80 million loan. Prosecutors obtained evidence that Spano had forged numerous letters from bank officials in his business dealings from 1995 onward. After Spano bounced the $17 million check, Comerica reportedly sent a letter to Pickett's attorneys saying he had funds to cover the overdraft. However, the executive who purportedly signed it denied ever writing it. Moreover, the letter was written in two different fonts, one on the body and another on the signature block. A postal inspector found that the fax machine mark at