the top of the page was an exact match to the one used by Spano's Bison Group. The fax machine mark on a letter purportedly from Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette that claimed Spano owned Treasury bills worth $27 million was also an exact match to the one used by Bison Group. It also emerged that many of the banks who gave money to Spano had abandoned their traditional safeguards. Fleet had relied on a letter from a Comerica senior vice president saying that Spano was worth over $100 million. This figure was based on what were later described as "unverified documents" provided by Spano. Additionally, a Dallas attorney claimed as trustee of a $107 million trust later told prosecutors he was unable to verify the trust's existence because of Spano's reluctance to document the funds. The Fleet loan officer who approved the $80 million deal was forced to resign. Spano initially fled to the Cayman Islands, but eventually agreed to return to the United States. On October 8, he pleaded guilty to the charges lodged by prosecutors on Long Island and Texas, admitting to forging documents and that he had planned to defraud the Islanders and Pickett. The plea deal called for him to plead guilty to bank fraud charges in Boston a week later, but several deadlines came and went, and Spano began making noises in late November about withdrawing his plea. As a result, a Boston grand jury indicted him for bank fraud, and federal prosecutors there made plans to file a superseding indictment that could have sent him to prison for 60 years. However, Spano's new attorneys resigned due to concerns that they would not be paid, and Spano had no choice but to accept the original offer. He pleaded guilty to bank fraud on January 13, 1998. In 1999, his wife divorced him and sold their house, and he moved to a Philadelphia condo where he had tried to pay the rent with an expired credit card, $10,000 in bad checks and wire transfers. This led to his arrest in February, and he lost his bail. On January 28, 2000, he was sentenced to 71 months in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution of $11.9 million to his victims, including the Islanders ($3.4 million), two Dallas businesses ($4.4 million), and Mario Lemieux ($1.25 million). Aftermath Spano was released in June 2004 on five years' supervised