Jeffrey Grayson

Jeffrey Grayson was born on May 4, 1942, in Salem, Oregon.[1] He and his twin sister Janet were born to N. Philip and Blossom Grayson, though the parents divorced in the 1950s.[1] His father was a small business owner.[1] He attended Duniway School in Portland and later graduated from Cleveland High School, also in Portland.[1] Grayson then attended the University of Oregon in Eugene where he spent one year on the cheerleading squad and was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.[1]

While in college his mother and stepfather were convicted of perjury and concealing assets during bankruptcy in 1961.[1] Grayson graduated with a business degree from Oregon and then enrolled at Willamette University College of Law in Salem.[1] He left after a single year to work for U.S. Bank in securities.[1] Grayson’s twin sister died in a car wreck in 1967.[1]

In 1968, Grayson and law school roommate Charles Swindells founded Capital Consultants.[1] The company dealt with investment management.[1] The company grew and by 1976 had $140 million in assets under its management including the pensions for Tektronix and county workers in Multnomah County.[1] Capital Consultants was then the largest independent funds manager in the Pacific Northwest,[1] and at one point had $1 billion in assets under management.[2] The company then had a series of legal issues that included a suspension of the company’s trading license by the SEC and an investigation by the Oregon Attorney General.[1]

Grayson was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at the age of 42, leading him to join the board of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s local chapter.[1] He also was the chairman of the board for the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.[1] Grayson’s pledge of $1.5 million to the University of Oregon and chairing their endowment campaign led to the naming of a building on campus for the Graysons, which was later revoked.[1]

In the late 1990s, the company and Grayson became involved in a scheme similar to a Ponzi scheme.[3] The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued the company and Grayson in September 2000.[4] On September 21, 2000, the district court placed CCL into receivership and appointed appellee Thomas F. Lennon as receiver. A judge later removed Grayson from control of the company, and federal prosecutors filed a charges for 22 separate counts in October 2001.[2] Grayson pleaded guilty to mail fraud and another charge in the case, and could have received up to four years in jail.[3] He suffered a stroke in 2002 that left him unable to appear or testify in court, and prevented him from being sentenced to prison.[3]

Grayson blamed the crimes on an attempt to recover the investment losses of his clients.[2] Following the stroke, Grayson was sent to a long-term care facility in Southwest Portland.[2] Jeffrey Grayson died on November 27, 2009, at the age of 67 in Portland, Oregon.[2]

• Willamette Week: The Shell Game