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Not so bankrupt after all?

Creditors say the former owner of the Oilers kept some assets under wraps

Peter Pocklington, the Canadian businessman perhaps best known as the man who traded Wayne Gretzky out of Edmonton, is facing charges he hid assets from creditors when he filed for bankruptcy last summer. According to Pocklington, the charges stem from a simple misunderstanding. The disputed assets, including thousands of dollars worth of artwork, aren’t his at all, he says; they’re his wife’s. Pocklington declared bankruptcy last August, claiming he was nearly $20 million in debt and had less than $3,000 to his name. (His golf clubs and his watch, worth $500 each, were Pocklington’s most valuable possessions.) But creditors claim the former owner of the Edmonton Oilers has been transferring money to Eva, his wife of 35 years, from an offshore bank account, and that the assets she claims to own are in fact controlled by Pocklington. Eva Pocklington has acknowledged receiving monthly payments from her husband, but told officials she didn’t know where the money came from.

Edmonton Journal

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