THEFT OF FUNDS

Southland Times, Issue 21820, 24 September 1932, Page 5

THEFT OF FUNDS

UNIVERSITY’S LOSS FORMER BURSAR SENT TO PRISON BIG SUMS INVOLVED (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) Winnipeg, September 22. John A. Machray, K.C., churchman, lawyer and financier, aged 67, who is suffering from cancer, was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment on each of two charges of theft to-day, the sentences to run concurrently, by the Magistrate in the Provincial Police Court after he had elected to undergo a summary trial in which he pleaded guilty to stealing 500,000 dollars from the University of Manitoba of which he had been bursar and chairman of the Board of Governors, and 60,000 dollars from a former law partner, Weber Archibald.

Machray was also Chancellor of the Church of England Diocese of Rupert’s Land which has suffered losses of funds in Machray’s custody placed at 860,000 dollars, but it is believed no charges will be laid in this connection. To-day the investment and legal business of Machray and Sharpe was declared bankrupt by the Chief Justice, Mr D. A. MacDonald, over a protest by 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 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 of the word, but under the criminal code certain acts had been made criminal under the heading of theft. An auditor’s examination revealed that the irregularities had been going on for the last 20 years and that bad investments as well as seeming speculations had made up the sum of loss. Machray was regarded as independently wealthy and looked up to as an outstanding citizen, devoting himself to public service, and his associates had such confidence in him that the audits of his accounts were a mere formality. The Controller-General of the Treasury of the province of Manitoba initialled his accounts each year.