Man sets fire to $1 million cash to avoid giving it to his wife
A Canadian man was sent to jail for 30 days after telling a judge he burned 1 million Canadian dollars in cash in bonfires to avoid paying his wife the divorce settlement.
Bruce McConville, 55, who was also mayoral candidate, told the judge that he withdrew about 1 million Canadian dollars -- about $750,000 USD -- in 25 separate withdrawals from six separate bank accounts. He claimed he then burned the cash in two bonfires – $743,000 on September 23 and $296,000 on December 15.
“Can I back you up a bit? When you say you destroyed it, what do you mean?” Superior Court Justice Kevin Phillips asked, to which McConville replied: “I burnt it.”
“It’s not something that I would normally do,” McConville said, according to a local daily. “I am not a person that is extremely materialistic. A little goes a long way. I have always been frugal. That’s why my business lasted for 31 years.”
“I don’t believe you. I don’t trust you. I don’t think you’re honest,” the judge told him. “I find what you have done to be morally reprehensible because what you claim to have done willfully and directly undermines the interests of your children.”
Meanwhile, the judge sent McConville to prison for violating the court orders. He ordered McConville to pay $2,000 a day to his ex-wife for every day he fails to disclose his finances to the court moving forward.
