A 55-year-old Ottawa businessman recently shocked a court of law by claiming that he literally burned one million Canadian dollars in cash just to avoid paying his ex-wife child support, as part of their divorce settlement.
Bruce McConville told a judge that he withdrew about 1 million Canadian dollars – roughly $750,000 – in 25 separate withdrawals from six separate bank accounts, and burned it all in two separate bonfires, CA$743,000 on Sept. 23 and CA$296,000 on Dec. 15. He claimed to have receipts to prove he withdrew the money, but that no one had seen him actually burn the money, and that the bonfires had not been video taped. McConville told the judge that he burned the money out of frustration with the divorce proceedings, even though he knew that he was undermining the interest of his children.
