COLLEGE ROBBED

Grey River Argus, 24 September 1932, Page 5

COLLEGE ROBBED

BY ITS CHAIRMAN. OF HALF MILLION DOLLARS. WINNIPEG', September 22. John A. Machray, K.C., churchman, lawyer and financier, aged 67, suffering from cancer, was sentenced to seven years imprisonment on each of fwo charges of theft to-day, the sentences to run concurrently, by th. e . Magistrate in the Provincial Police Court, after he elected for summary trial, in which he pleaded guilty to stealing 500,000 dollars from the University of Manitoba, of which he had been Bursar and Chair-'-in of the Board of Governors, (th? charge being altered from 901,175 dollars by agreement between counsel) and 60.000 dollars from a former law partner, Herbert Archibald.

Machray was also Chancellor of the Church of England Diocese of Rupert sin nd, which has suffered losses on funds in Machray’s custody, placed at 860,000 dollars, hut it is believed the no charges will be laid in this connection.

To-day, the investment and legal business of Machray and Sharpe was declared bankrupt by Chief Justice D. A. MacDonald, over the protest of F. J. Sharpe, th c junior partner, who claimed that, he knew nothing of the condition of the University funds.

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

Machray’s counsel, Mr A. E. HosKiTis, K.C., in a. statement in Court, said that in pleading guilty, Machray was not admitting theft in th? common <»r ordinary sense of the word, hut under the criminal codr, certain acts were made criminal under the hea& ing of theft.