Magnotta captured without a fight
Luka Rocco Magnotta, the fugitive accused of a grisly Montreal murder dismemberment that saw body parts mailed to political parties, has been arrested in Berlin.
OTTAWA — Despite his claims to be a model and adult- film actor, accused killer Luka Magnotta was an unemployed server with no reported income when he declared bankruptcy in 2007. Magnotta, arrested Monday in Berlin on allegations he killed and dismembered a Chinese exchange student, presents a banal financial accounting of his life though bankruptcy filings that contrast sharply with his carefully cultivated online image. The bankruptcy documents filed in Mississauga, Ont., do little to support Magnotta’s Internet boasting that portrayed a more affluent and exciting life in the sex industry. Many of the photos of Magnotta circulated online show him in expensive sports cars or in foreign locations. He gave interviews about his time working in the porn industry and as a male prostitute. But when Magnotta, then 24, filed for bankruptcy in March 2007, he listed his occupation as “server” and reported zero monthly income. The cause of the bankruptcy is listed as “illness, lack of employment and insufficient income to pay off debts.” He also claimed he had to pay $ 200 monthly for expenses relating to an unspecified medical condition. Magnotta’s few assets included a 1995 Ford Explorer worth about $ 2,500, some furniture and personal effects, and a life insurance policy valued at $ 1,000 that names his mother as beneficiary. Magnotta’s list of debts of about $ 17,000 included: • $ 800 to the City of Toronto for parking tickets. • $ 500 owed to Bally’s Total Fitness in Scarborough. • $ 200 for unpaid toll charges on Highway 407. • $ 1,400 in cellphone bills from Rogers and Bell Mobility. • $ 2,500 on back rent for an apartment in Toronto’s Mount Pleasant area. Also among the unsecured creditors was the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services, which was owed $ 1,030 for an unspecified debt. Magnotta indicated in the bankruptcy filings he did not owe any money for child- support payments, casting doubt on reports he had a child in Montreal. His largest outstanding debt was $ 6,882 owed to an autoleasing company in Burnaby. The monthly budget Magnotta submitted to the court listed $ 925 for rent, $ 100 for food, $ 20 for cigarettes and $ 100 for a telephone. The bankruptcy was fully discharged in December 2007.