There is still no word yet on whether the University will return $800,000 donated by Jeffrey Grayson, a Portland businessman suspected of embezzling millions of dollars from investment clients.
In July, University of Oregon Foundation officials announced they would begin talks with court-appointed receiver Thomas Lennon, who had asked that the University return the money.
That discussion is still continuing, and, as of the beginning of September, no decision had been reached, said Allan Price, vice president for University advancement.
“The foundation’s attorney is in communications with the receiver in an attempt to bring closure to this issue,” he said. “We’re awaiting the culmination of these discussions.”
In 1997, Grayson, the former president of the bankrupt investment firm Capital Consultants, pledged to donate $1.5 million to the University.
Since then, he has given the University about $800,000. That money helped fund the renovation of the former law school, which was renamed Grayson Hall in honor of Grayson and his wife Susan.
But recent investigations have revealed that the money Grayson donated may not have been his to give.
Last fall, the U.S. Department of Labor and the Securities and Exchange Commission shut down Capital Consultants for making bad loans and possibly cheating investors out of millions of dollars.
Lennon said many of Grayson’s high-profile donations over the past five years came out of the $355 million Capital Consultants allegedly stole from investors and union pension funds. In court records, he has said the company was already unable to pay its debts when Grayson first promised to donate money to the University.
University officials have said they are not sure whether the money should be returned.
“The University cannot simply give away money without a clear legal reason to do so,” President Dave Frohnmayer said in a written statement released when talks with Lennon began. “Similarly, the foundation has a fiduciary responsibility to the many donors who have entrusted their funds to them on behalf of the UO.”
University alumnus Dr. Michael Malos, a Portland physician and surgeon, said the University should rename Grayson Hall, even if that means returning the money.
“I think they should do whatever it takes to get his name off the building,” Malos said. “We have an individual here who appears to have committed one of the worst financial crimes in U.S. history, and his name is on the former law school.”