If you haven’t seen the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary Big Shot, go watch it on Netflix and return to this story.
For those that have, he’s back at it again. And back at it again is John Spano, committing an act of fraud and getting caught again. The man who tried to scam the NHL when he tried to buy the New York Islanders 19 years ago pleaded guilty last month to 19 counts of forgery and was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison in Painesville, Ohio.
This latest scam he tried to pull off came when he was hired as a delivery driver that provides laundry services to medical facilities. He worked his way up the ladder to salesman, where he collected nearly $70,000 in sales commissions off fake accounts he created. Spano ran this scheme out of a self-storage unit.
Spano could have faced up to 16 years for his third time committing fraud but was only sentenced to 10. His two previews visits to prison ended in 71-month and 51-month terms.
(Maribeth Joeright/AP)
His first conviction in 2000 was the longer sentence, where he was also ordered to pay $11.9-million in restitution to the Islanders and victims of other scams, including $1.25-million to Mario Lemieux. When he tried to buy the Islanders, he hailed himself Texas businessman worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and the NHL approved the sale. He convinced banks to give him an $80 million loan for the purchase. But months after being hailed as a hero by Islander fans, his con was revealed when he failed to pay a relatively modest down payment of $5 million.
After Spano left prison in New York, he returned to Grand River, Ohio where he spent time there as a young adult. He started a finance company and committed fraud again when he collected fees for services he never delivered. He pleased guilty in federal court and spent just over four years in prison and paid nearly $300,000 in restitution. It was just after his release from prison from this stint where he was hired as a delivery driver that led to his current legal trouble.
