SENT TO PRISON.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 226, 23 September 1932, Page 7

SENT TO PRISON.

DOWNFALL OF K.C.

BIG THEFT CHARGES

Churchman, Lawyer, Financier In Manitoba. SEVEN-YEAR SENTENCE. United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 11 a.m.) WINNIPEG, September 22. John A. Machray, K.C., ehurchman, lawyer and financier, aged 66$ who is suffering an internal cancer, was sentenced to seven years on each of two charges of theft on Thursday, the sentences to run concurrently, by the Magistrate,, Mr. T. M. Noble, at the Provincial Police Court. After electing to have a summary trial he pleaded guilty to stealing 500,000 dollars from the University of Manitoba, of which he has been a bursar and chairman of the Board of Governors, and 60,000 dollars from his former law partner, Mr. Heber Archibald. Machray was also Chancellor of tha Church of England diocese .of Rupert' 3 Land, which has suffered losses on the funds in Machray's custody placed at 800,000 dollars, but it is believed that no charges will be laid in this eonnec-

The investment and legal business of Machray and Sharpe has been declared bankrupt by the Chief Justice, Judge D. A. Mac Donald, over the protest of Mr. F. J. Sharpe, the junior partner, who claimed that he knew nothing of the condition of the university funds.

Machray was taken to the provincial gaol, where he will remain for 30 days before going to the penitentiary. Any appeal for leniency on the grounds of his illness must go to.the Minister of Justice at Ottawa.

Machray's counsel, Mr. A. E. Hoskins, K.C., in a statement in Court, said that in pleading guilty Machray was not admitting theft in the common or ordinary sense \>f the word, but under the criminal code certain acts were made criminal under the heading of theft.

John Alexander Machray, K.C., wag charged with the * biggest frauds ever known to the Canadian Courts following upon an investigation into, the affairs of the University of Manitoba, whose trust fund he was declared to have depleted from 1,600,000 dollars to 100,000 dollars through thefts and also through numerous bad investment*. Mnchray, who was the nephew of the late Archbishop of. Winnipeg, was born in the State and was educated in the university which he has now beggared. He was elected a member of the University Council in 1908, and next year was appointed Chancellor of the Anglican Church dioceee of Rupert's Land. Regarded as independently wealthy and looked up to ae an outstanding citizen devoting himself to public, educational, and religious services, his associates had such confidence in him that the audits of his accounte were a mere formality. The Controller-General of the Treasury of the province of Manitoba had automatically initialled his accounte each May.