All Forum Posts by: Johan Sigmundson

Stephen and Brett,

Everything I have compiled — and will continue to compile — is summarized here and is derived from publicly available filings. There are other members who have direct information that I am not privy to. You should all be sharing any communications you receive from CREW. It’s likely that, to the extent they’re saying anything, they’re telling different stories to different investors to keep the situation afloat.

I don't think the FBI will take this seriously until investor losses are realized — that is, when properties are sold or foreclosed on and there is no return of investment. They may be content to simply gather information and watch as the house crumbles. Investors will be left holding the bag for all the deferred depreciation recapture taxes now owed on the depreciation they claimed before rolling into the DST, as well as any depreciation taken within the DST — with no sales proceeds available to pay those taxes.

If it were me, I would want to know which U.S. Attorney the agent is working with and have a conversation with that person about what criteria would need to be met to bring charges. All the material facts the FBI needs to pursue potential crimes — if they can be prosecuted as such — are contained in the KHCA lawsuit.

If any of you have lawyers, you may want to reach out to the dozens of laid-off employees from CREW and Book and Ladder. They have stories to tell and may wish to distance themselves from CREW's misconduct. KHCA has already secured at least one affidavit from a former employee who quit after discovering that Blake and Tanya were directing funds from DST subscriptions away from loan repayment and toward their personal use. He was further instructed to conceal those transfers from the lender.

You can forward that affidavit to every broker-dealer you worked with. They need to understand that they were either duped or failed to conduct sufficient due diligence to uncover obvious fraudulent activity. Given the summary of judgments and pending judgments currently facing CREW, Blake Wettengel, and Tanya Muro, I don't believe there will be any assets left to pursue for financial recovery on behalf of the DST members.

If you want justice, make noise — loudly and everywhere you can. I would think the broker-dealers themselves would be eager to see CREW held accountable for clear fraud. The collapse of CREW due to fraudulent activity poses a threat to their entire industry.

If you want to recover anything, verify whether your broker or advisor conducted adequate due diligence on CREW or bears any liability for recommending them.

Thank you to the member who privately shared additional details about the SCP lawsuit I referenced above. The judgment is final in the amount of $13 million. It applies to Crew, as well as to Blake and Tanya individually. That alone could be enough to bankrupt them, not to mention their other pending legal issues. Additionally, the I.B.I. Volcano lawsuit against Crew is final, with a judgment exceeding $45 million. They also face a pending $56 million lawsuit with KHCA that is still progressing, and I struggle to see how they could avoid liability in that case.

I also received copies of documents filed in the bankruptcy case involving four land parcels in Dana Point, CA, that Blake and Tanya acquired through another entity, Sunstone Development. The bankruptcy was filed in California, and the court has approved the sale of the parcels to satisfy the primary lender, a group called Oakhurst, which is owed over $12 million. In the documents, Blake affirms that he used funds from Crew to purchase and support the acquisition of the Dana Point parcels, as well as two hotel properties in Anaheim. He acknowledges borrowing at least $7.3 million from Crew and related Versity entities. In addition, KHCA has filed a claim in the Dana Point case, asserting that approximately $8 million of their money was improperly diverted to acquire those parcels.

It is reasonable to conclude that Blake misappropriated funds that should have been distributed to investors or used for loan repayments, instead diverting them into private investments that he and Tanya owned directly. At some point, this fraud must cross from civil to criminal liability. Blake and Tanya are facing at least $100 million in combined judgments against themselves and Crew—before even considering the additional losses that DST investors will suffer when their properties are foreclosed or sold at a loss.

According to what has been posted here, Blake and Tanya's firm, Book and Ladder has lost the management of most of the properties and Crew only retains financial control over 4-5 properties after the majority of the portfolio was transferred back to Brian Nelson's control. 

Blake and Tanya are running out of assets that they can skim operational money from. Expect to see more bankruptcies and quick collapse of what remains.

For those considering legal action against Blake Wettengel and Tanya Muro, it would appear that some previous lawsuits against Blake and Tanya have already been completed. They have lost, and the winning party is taking control of their personal banking accounts to satisfy the judgements.

The case appears to be Signature Collection Properties, LLC v. Academy West Investments, LLC. filed in the Superior Court of the State of California. I don't have all the court records but I found the following reference this week: (https://www.occourts.org/sites/default/files/oc/default/tent...) Search the document for mention of Blake or Tanya, its number and begins on page 12 of the pdf.

This is a summary of a Tentative Ruling by the court regarding the collection efforts of Signature Collection Properties. It appears they have seized some bank accounts including those of Tanya Muro's husband and Blake Wettengel's daughter. In the case of Tanya's husband, the court is allowing them to seize the funds in the account in questions. In the case of Blake's daughter, the court is ruling that it is her personal account and not connected to Blake. 

If the court is allowing for personal bank accounts to be seized to satisfy the payment of a judgement, it could indicate that Blake and Tanya are nearing bankruptcy.

If anyone has access to the Signature Collection Properties lawsuit or knows the amount of the judgement, please let me know.

Your understanding is correct. In most cases it looks like this:

1) The Sponsor (CREW or VERSITY of WHOEVER) find a property they want to buy and it costs $100MM

2) The Sponsor arranges for a traditional acquisition loan for somewhere between 60-70% of the purchase price, lets assume 70%. The lender of that loan is what we will call the Senior Lender or 1st position lender. They will hold a mortgage for the actual real estate as collateral for the repayment of their loan. If the Borrower/Sponsor does not repay the loan the Senior Lender can foreclose and sell the real estate themselves to satisfy the loan. The "Borrower" for that loan is a legal entity created by the Sponsor to own that specific piece of real estate. The Sponsor is the "Manager" of the ownership entity. Later, as portions of the property are sold/syndicated to DST investors, each DST investor will own a % portion of the legal entity created to own the real estate.

3) The Sponsor still needs to find $30MM in additional money to buy the property and this is where the Bridge Lender comes in. The Bride Lender will provide anywhere from 90% to 100% of the funds necessary to close on the property. Ideally, the Sponsor would put up 5-10% of their own money, but thats not always the case. In this scenario, the Bridge Lender is making a loan for $25-$30MM. The Bridge Lender can't use the property for their collateral, because the Senior Lender already has that position spoken for. The Bridge Lender will take as collateral, the "equity position" in the real estate, and other guaranties of repayment from the Sponsor as needed. If the Sponsor fails to repay the Bridge Lender, the Bridge Lender can foreclose on the equity position, but the Bridge Lender would still responsible to ensure the Senior Lender gets paid off. If the Bridge Lender can't payoff the Senior Lender, they can also be foreclosed on. A bridge loan carries a higher interest rate, 8-12%, than a senior loan, around 4-6%, because the Bridge Lender is in a riskier position than the Senior Lender.

4) After the initial property closing. The Sponsor then syndicates or sells portions of the equity position to repay to the Bridge Lender. The DST members become % owners of the legal entity set up to own the real estate. The Sponsor is still the manager of that entity and still responsible for making day-to-day operational decisions.

5) This process is expensive, with fees at every level. A property that the sponsor agrees to buy for $100MM, might have anywhere from $8-$12MM in additional fees when all is said and done. The Sponsor will have a 2%+ acquisition fee, the Broker/Dealers that place the DST members in the deal will be get 6%-8% on the equity they arrange. The Bridge Lender will charge an origination fee, plus interest for the time their money is being used. All of these fees will inflate the actual cost of buying the real estate from $100MM to $108-$112MM.

6) What the DST member will be pitched is not owning part of a $100MM property, they will be pitched on buying into a $108-$112MM property. The Sponsor will argue they got a good deal at $100MM and its really worth $115MM so the added fees are worked out in the end. That may or may not be true, but its how they justify loading these deals up with fees.

For better or worse, that is the normal process for DST backed investments, there is nothing new or illegal and its done by many sponsors.

However... When times get tough, some Sponsors start doing things that may be ACTUALLY ILLEGAL or FRAUDULENT to cover mistakes or line their pockets before time runs out.

CREW/Versity is facing issues on the Bridge Lender front because they intentionally failed to repay the Bridge Lender with the money that DST members paid in. This is the KHCA lawsuit alleging they took $57MM in DST subscriptions that they then used for other personal endeavors. This would appear to be fraud and is a major problem, civil and most likely criminally.

CREW/Versity are also facing issues on the Senior Lender front because they have stopped making their loan payments and/or have failed to make property tax payments required by the loans. The Senior Lender can now demand full repayment immediately. If CREW/Versity fail to repay now, the Senior Lender can foreclosure and wipe out everyone's ownership interest.

I just read the IBI Volcano Judgement against CREW/VERSITY INVEST. Its my understanding that the Bridge Lender's collateral in the DST deals is the equity position in the property in addition to any guaranties provided by the sponsor. They don't hold a traditional real estate lien.

Normally these deals have a Senior 1st position lender when the property is acquired, this would be a traditional real estate loan that most people are familiar with and have a loan-to-value between 60%-80%. In order to fund the remaining equity, the "Bridge Lender" provides the bulk of the initial equity to close the deal and is repaid as the DST participations are sold and the lender is repaid during that sales period. Their collateral is the unsold/unrepaid portion of the equity stack until the debt is retired. Because of the risk, they usually get additional guaranties and/or personal guaranties from the Sponsor. In this case its Versity Invest(Now Crew Enterprises after the rebrand). The total judgement against Versity Invest/Crew is this case is $47.1MM. Now IBI Volcano can pursue collection on that judgement. The Bridge lender will control any portion of the equity left in the property, I am not sure what happens to the sold DST portions, I assume if Crew repaid the Bridge Lender with those funds the DST would still own their portion. If Crew didn't repay the Bridge Lender, then I would think the DST owners are out of luck and would need to pursue CREW for fraud.

If you are a DST member in Apex, You or your attorney will want to reach out the Bridge Lender (IBI Volcano) to find out what position they are taking with respect to the DST members.

Versity Invest & Crew Enterprises are the same entities the KHCA is suing for $56MM, plus they are suing Blake Wettengel, Tanya Muro and Brian Nelson because they provided personal guaranties in addition to the corporate guaranties. It should be noted that Brian Nelson alleges his guaranty was fraudulenty executed or his was tricked into signing and he is suing counter suing Blake/Tanya/Crew&Versity. 

If KHCA prevails, then there will be a 2nd judgement against Versity Invest/Crew and likely personal judgements againts Blake Wettengel and Tanya Muro as well as potentially Brian Nelson.

It seems unlikely that Crew/Versity have more than $100MM in assets, so expect a bankruptcy to start as soon as IBI Volcano or KHCA make an effort to collect on their judgements.

As others have said, make as much noise with the Broker Dealers and maybe initiate arbitration. You could also check your operating agreements for each asset to see how the members can vote to remove the manager. The Lenders may be more willing to work with the DST owners than with Blake Wettengel and Tanya Muro to find a solution the saves any equity left in the deal.

Although many employees have left, you will want to note who you dealt with that held a FINRA securities license that you can name in any arbitration. Jason Kjellson, Cory Guy, Maxwell Peterson, Frank Muhlon etc... Not sure which ones held licenses but its worth noting. Any communication after probably Q3 2022 or when CREW bought Apex. This appears to be when they began to defraud KHCA and when they got a bridge loan from IBI Volcano. This is the moment when all the Broker Dealers or Employees/CFO should have noticed that something shady was going on.

I sent this to Steve in a private note on here but I'll add this for everyones consideration

"Its going to be hard to get authorities to act on this until the losses become real. Right now, as most of the assets have not been sold yet, you can't say investors have lost money. You can assume they will not recover their principal, but losing money on a deal is not a crime. The losses will become real once the properties are sold and lost and the DST members no longer own any portion of any asset and haven't received their money back.

Where it appears CREW may have acted criminally is in defrauding KHCA, and by extension inducing folks to invest in the DST under false, misleading or fraudulent representations.Additionally, if they have used cash flow from one DST to pay expenses at another property or pay CREW Enterprises' operating expenses and salaries in violation of the operating agreement, that would amounts to theft. If you can, I would start pushing hard for property level financials for every investment you are involved in. They should not object to this demand from DST members to see the operating statements for their investments. If they do object you'll know they are hiding something more. Further, you should want to see bank account statements, I wouldn't put it past them to falsify records if what KHCA alleges is remotely true. If you see things like inter-company loans or similar things you'll know they have been misallocating funds.

I mentioned this before, I know from this forum and other places that CREW is stonewalling people and not providing any answers to investors. I would be beating down the door of every investment advisor that worked with CREW to see if they can put pressure on them to start providing answers. Ultimately they share some culpability for not overseeing or verifying CREW's honest operations. Every Broker/Dealer was making 5-9% on the money they brought in by recommending CREW to investors. Maybe CREW was lying to them also, but it looks like they might have been asleep at the wheel while CREW was digging themselves a massive ditch.You need to be banging on drums to get people with oversight responsibilities to start looking at this. Time is your enemy at this stage."

Godspeed!

From my vantage I think you can pursue two paths 

1) You can pursue recovery of as much of your principal as possible, this would likely look like pressuring for a sale of the assets and getting whatever equity you have left back. You'd probably have to avoid lawsuits etc because all of that will chew up time and value. 

or

2) You can pursue accountability through the SEC or maybe the FBI. I think if this is the path, asset value will probably be destroyed because everything will be tied up for several years as the process plays out.

What you are up against is the lenders. As I noted KHCA has already commenced a lawsuit against Wettengel/Muro. If the facts KHCA allege turn out to be true, they'll get a monster judgement against them Wettengel/Muro personally. If the small investors sue on a personal level, they will likely have to get in line behind KHCA for any recovery. Nelson is suing Wettengel/Muro/Crew in California, I haven't seen any of these case files as they are not free to view, but if someone had enough interest I am sure you could pay a few hundred to download from Orange County Superior Court of California. In the KHCA lawsuit Nelson is alleging CREW forged/tricked him into signing docs, so maybe its already criminal fraud, I don't know.

Next, every property also has a another lender. From the public information CREW is already defaulting on these property loans and properties are being foreclosed. For example the University Park project in Berkeley. A foreclosure sale was scheduled and Crew just filed bankruptcy of that DST Entity to stop the foreclsoure, but that won't work for very long and its almost guaranteed that all equity is lost. https://www.law360.com/real-estate-authority/commercial/arti...

I have found other entities associated with Wettengel/Muro. Academy West, Book and Ladder (property manager owned by Wettengel/Muro), and Sunstone Development and other bankruptcy and foreclosures, see below 

https://www.cacb.uscourts.gov/sites/cacb/files/documents/not...

https://www.pacermonitor.com/view/HXV2Q5I/NB_Park_Plaza_Prov...

https://unicourt.com/case/ca-ora-signature-collection-proper...

I would guess all other properties are likely in some form of non-payment, tax default, getting construction liens etc... You could ask a maybe a lawyer or title company to help you look up that information on your specific investments. 

My two cents for what its worth. Download all public information, this is the New York KHCA lawsuit, the Berkeley bankruptcy, the Nelson/Wettengel lawsuit in California and any other public filings. Start sending as much as possible to the SEC, FBI and the Brokers who advised to invest with Crew. Put as much pressure on Crew to sell what they can now and return money. But at this stage I would assume your equity is gone.

I am not sure how many individual investors will be impacted, maybe 500+, but just a guess. 

The one thing you can be sure of at this point is that almost everything you hear from CREW will be false they probably know they are doomed and are just delaying things as long as possible. More delays is what will further destroy any hope of recovery for the DST members.

The people that tipped me off to this are not going to pursue anything so I don't really have an interest going forward. But google is your friend and you should chase all the lawsuit and bankruptcy filings. Anyone working with lawyer should be able to get the details easily. 

I would pull on all the threads, Blake Wettengel, Tanya Muro, CREW enterprises, Book and Ladder, Academy West, Sunstone Development, look for lawsuits, defaults, bankruptcy filings etc... 

Its pretty clear Nelson & Versity are adversarial to Wettengel/Muro and CREW. I can't find as much about Nelson and the properties that were awarded back to him because the KHCA filing doesn't address those assets, but I'll keep an eye out and let this thread know if I come across. The previous firm where Brian Nelson and Patrick Nelson(brothers) where involved together has a mountain of problems, maybe SEC, FBI etc... but the public information there focuses mostly on Patrick and less on Brian/Versity as far as I can tell and that dates back to mid 2010s

Godspeed!

I am looking into Crew/Versity and wanted to summarize what I have learned so far and see if anyone can give me more bread crumbs to follow. Most of the public information I can find is about problems that originate 2022 and later. I don't have much information about pre 2022 stuff

1) All the documents related to the $56 Million fraud case against Crew are online and free to look at on the New York Unified Court system website at the following link: https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcivil/FCASeFiledDocsDeta...

2) I am paying special attention to the unsealed complaint Doc#49 on 5/17/2024 and the amended complaint Doc#137 on 9/13/2024 - KHCA details what they allege is the CREW scheme

3) It alleges Wettengel and Muro sold syndications but did not repay their bridge credit line as required. Alleging they used the funds to buy A) Apex South Creek B) purchase property in Dana Point, CA  C) pay themselves or crew $14 Million D) Purchase property near Disneyland and E) Wettengel bought at $4.5 Million house

4) The DSTs involved appear to be Hayworth, Vintage, The Walk, One on 4th Street and Apex South Creek

5) Doc #241 from 5/23/2025  - It looks like Nelson was more or less not involved for the last several years, maybe in a dispute with Wettengel and Muro. Wettengel and Muro tried to buy out and settle with Nelson in Dec 2023 agreeing to pay him $30 Million but they didn't make meaningful payments on schedule. I am not sure if that breach is what resulted in the control of the 18 or so other DSTs going back to Nelson

6) Doc#196 from 12/17/2024 - Nelson alleges that Crew forged his name or tricked him into signing guaranties of loans or other docs related to the DSTs involved in the $56 Million fraud

That is as far as I have gotten. It looks like KHCA and Nelson are trying to depose the Crew lawyer and ask about who signed what docs 

This is big picture fraud being alleged, not specific property level. Its just a guess here, but It seems logical that when the funds from the alleged bridge lending fraud dried up in 2023/2024 coincides with when Crew stopped distributing cash-flow to the DST members. I would guess they continued to fund their own interests with property money, but I haven't seen documentation about that yet. I have not seen any public responses from Crew (Wettengel or Muro) yet. If you have anything you can share please let me know.

The person asking me to help is thinking about filing a lawsuit against Crew. I think it looks like a lost cause at this point with a Lender already going after $56 Million they don't have.