From Versity to Crew
This page follows Versity Investments into Versity Invest / Crew: the revolving bridge, the second LLC, and the cases that followed. It is not legal advice.
Court filings and Form Ds are the record. Forum posts are color, marked when used. Pending BrokerCheck items are allegations. Settlements are not findings of liability.
In short
Monthly distributions stopped on many of these DSTs around May 2024, including buildings that still had tenants. KHCA sued in New York the same season. Later complaints allege that Blake Wettengel and Tanya Muro sent syndication proceeds and property-account cash to other real estate and to themselves.
In spring 2022 they formed a Delaware LLC, licensed the Versity name, and closed Vintage under it. By 2025 the shop had split in public: some DSTs back with Brian Nelson, five still with Crew under unpaid bridge.
The shop
Nelson and Patrick Nelson built Nelson Brothers as a student-housing syndication shop. They split around 2018. Patrick’s line is Nelson Partners. That company has its own national coverage and civil judgments. The DSTs on this page are Brian’s line.
Brian’s line became NB Private Capital, then Versity Investments. Wettengel joined around 2015 as COO/GC and was CEO from 2018. Muro was Nelson Brothers IR from 2009 and COO from 2018. Patrick’s company had already sued Wettengel in Orange County in November 2020.
On 27 May 2021 a senior secured revolving facility went in. The VIP Bonds circular names the lenders as special purpose entities wholly owned by Crayhill Capital Management, at 12.50%. Borrower: Versity EquityCo, wholly owned via EquityCo Parent by Versity Investments. Named parties include Nelson, Wettengel, and Muro.
4th & J sold interests starting 28 Oct 2021. Form D related persons: Nelson, Wettengel, Muro.
The machine
A DST often closes with an initial beneficiary holding 100% of the interests, funded by a bridge. Syndication is supposed to redeem that interest and repay the revolver. DST holders sit behind the senior mortgage and that leftover claim.
Vintage’s 11 Jan 2022 PPM says a default on the revolving facility — including a loan unrelated to Vintage — may require Vintage syndication proceeds to pay that facility. The 12 Apr 2022 LeaseCo side letter sends excess revenue and disposition fees to Vintage IB until Full Redemption. KHCA is a named third-party beneficiary.
That is why a later complaint about unpaid bridge names four DSTs.
A second Versity, spring 2022
17 Mar 2022: Delaware certificate of formation for Versity InvestCo, LLC, file 6684437. 23 Mar: renamed Versity Invest. Founding members: Wettengel and Muro. Wettengel was still CEO of Versity Investments.
2 Apr 2022, ten days before Vintage closed:
- BackOffice Services Agreement: Versity Investments (Wettengel as Manager) supplies ops, accounting, and payroll to Versity Invest (Muro). InvestCo pays Versity I payroll until it hires the staff. 12-month auto-renew.
- IP license: Versity Investments (Nelson as Authorized Signatory) licenses the names “Versity” / “Versity Investments” to the new LLC. Annual royalty via 10% promissory note, amount TBD.
12 Apr 2022, same day:
- Versity Invest operating agreement. Two managers. Initial CFO Jennifer Welker, CIO Frank Muhlon.
- Vintage Trust Agreement, master lease, Book & Ladder PMA, Walker & Dunlop mortgage, $119.6 million buy, first sale.
- KHCA first amendment to the senior secured term loan. The circular calls that amendment the Crayhill Credit Facility and adds Versity Invest as co-guarantor.
Form D 21 Apr 2022. Related persons: Wettengel and Muro only. The selling group includes Tim Sherer, Ryan Sherer, and Nelson at Emerson Equity. Nelson is off the promoter card and on the ticket. The PPM, dated 11 Jan, still names Versity Investments as sponsor and Nelson as its sole owner.
To a buyer in April 2022 this still read as Versity.
The diagram is the Crew-era four — Vintage, The Walk, One on 4th, Hayworth — plus Apex South Creek and 4th & J. Selling group and commissioned sellers stay off. Turn them on to see Nelson on Vintage.
What KHCA says happened to the line
KHCA’s original complaint (NYSCEF Doc 49) says it financed eight Core Assets and was repaid on four. The unpaid four are Vintage, Walk, One on 4th, and Hayworth. 4th & J is on the repaid side.
The first amended complaint (Doc 119, 13 Aug 2024) alleges they sold syndications on those four and did not repay the line. The table puts alleged misappropriated proceeds at $56,157,281. Alleged uses: Apex South Creek (KHCA had declined to finance on 13 Sep 2022), Dana Point land, Anaheim hotels, an acquisition fee to Versity, and a Capistrano house. Those are allegations.
The circular names the 12 Apr 2022 first amendment the Crayhill Credit Facility. The New York suit is a different caption: KHCA Funding LLC and Knights Hill Ireland II DAC.
10 Apr 2026 (Bannon), in KHCA v. Versity / Crew: contract and alter-ego live against Crew, Versity Investments, Wettengel, Muro, and Nelson. Fraud and conversion dismissed as duplicative of contract. KHCA appealed the dismissed counts.
Apex is a different stack
The Apex PSA (exhibit) is dated 1 Aug 2022, $100 million. KHCA alleges it declined to finance Apex on 13 Sep 2022, then about $13.5 million of syndication proceeds from the unpaid four went to buy it anyway. Allegation.
Close 18 Nov 2022. Leftover-equity notes the same day: $25 million IBI Volcano + $6 million West 4 + $11 million Comrit (later assigned to Volcano). 12% coupon, 14% default. Pledge of IB interests, not a mortgage. Guarantor: Crew LLC, not a personal guaranty by Wettengel or Muro.
IBI Volcano / West 4 v. Crew, Index 652237/2025. Clerk money judgment 30 Sep 2025: $45,498,832.38 to Volcano, $4,494,349.18 to West 4, plus $535 costs. That is entered. DST holders sit behind the Walker & Dunlop mortgage and that stack.
Freeze, rebrand, the public split
Delaware SOS name change to Crew Enterprises on or about 11 Mar 2024. A 6 May 2024 rebrand PR claimed about $2 billion AUM / 35 properties; later their own site said about $500 million / 7 properties.
KHCA filed Index 651885/2024 in May 2024. Distributions stopped across the book around the same weeks — 4th & J and Oakbrook the same month, per a 16 Apr 2025 post. Forum color.
Nelson had already sued Wettengel in Orange County on 20 Oct 2023 (30-2023-01356667). Dismissed 7 Dec. The 3 Dec 2023 term sheet, attached to the later JAMS award: Crew was to buy Nelson’s interests in Versity Investments, NBPRE, and Book & Ladder for $30 million, close by December 2024.
That close did not happen as written. Orange County 30-2025-01534910 (22 Apr 2026) confirms the 26 Nov 2025 JAMS Final Award: $14,550,000 plus $166,834 fees, jointly and severally against Crew, Wettengel, and Muro. Nelson 65% of Versity Investments with financial-control rights; Wettengel/Muro 35%; Book & Ladder 34/33/33. The unpaid $30 million purchase price was not awarded. Crew stopped asset-management for the Versity I portfolio on 15 May 2025 (award finding).
4th & J is a plaintiff, with sixteen other DSTs, in OC 30-2026-01543537. Vintage Horizon West is not on that caption. Wolf Run Vintage (498 Beverly, Reno) is a different asset.
Planned vehicle or later divorce?
The 2022 LLC used Versity I’s name, back office, and payroll. Vintage closed under that name ten days after the license. Nelson signed the license and appeared on the Vintage selling group.
The public fight is 2023–26: a $30 million buyout that was not paid as written, a JAMS split of the old company, then more Orange County complaints.
OC 30-2025-01535878 (filed 24 Dec 2025) alleges Wettengel and Muro formed Crew while still officers of Versity I. That is an allegation. The spring 2022 paper is on EDGAR either way.
What the later Orange County complaints add
The 24 Dec 2025 Versity I / Nelson / NBPRE complaint alleges diverted property-account funds, withheld Entrata access, about $1.2 million of Factory Class B investor funds not remitted after an arbitrator order, Factory sale-proceeds embezzlement, and forged Nelson signatures. Versity I alleges it did not release in the December 2023 settlement. Allegations.
The 29 Jan 2026 DST-plaintiff complaint alleges Crew as de facto asset manager December 2023–15 May 2025, diverted Factory sale proceeds, fabricated payables and “partnership expenses,” and $2,125,465 of unauthorized Molly Barr sale-escrow deductions. Seventeen DSTs. Allegations.
What the thread put together
The BiggerPockets thread is investor hearsay. Holders on that thread compared webinars and docket reads. This site does not republish the posts. Permalinks go to the posts.
The working picture on that thread: cash left the buildings. Occupied DSTs in different cities stopped paying in the same weeks, with the same tax-and-insurance story. New syndication proceeds, per KHCA, did not repay the bridge. Operating cash, per later complaints and webinar recaps, showed up as “partnership expense.” Posters treat the 2022 LLC as a takeover and the 2024 freeze as the moment it became visible. That is a forum frame. Logical leaps in this section are theirs.
Brett Henricks (30 Mar 2025): most of the properties he heard about were going concerns, often described as about 90% occupied; the damage investors could see was missed distributions. A later post (23 Jun 2025): geographically diverse properties, similar excuses and time frames, “suspicious at best.”
Steve Cameron (10 May 2025), on 4th & J: he asked Crew why all sixteen properties stopped at once when he held one DST. The reply, as he reports it, was “probably a master agreement issue.” He says that language is not how he bought the interest.
Webinar recaps on the thread put a “partnership expense” line on books Nelson later got back: Wolf Run about $840,000, Astoria about $233,000 (30 Jul 2025). Forum color. The January 2026 DST complaint alleges fabricated payables and partnership expenses as a pleading fact.
Johan Sigmundson (14 Aug 2025) mapped the KHCA docket for the board: sold syndications, unpaid bridge, alleged uses Apex / Dana Point / Anaheim / about $14 million to principals / a Capistrano house. That map is the complaint. He is reading the filing.
On the split itself, two forum versions. Nelson’s side, in a 9 May recap of a 2 May Cornerstone webinar, calls a “rogue principal,” with issues coming to light when distributions halted and the New York lender sued. Gregory M. Owens (21 Nov 2025) argues the other way: Wettengel and Muro had the books, planned the second company, forced Nelson out, and stashed cash. Hearsay. The spring 2022 paper is on EDGAR either way.
Some posters call this a ponzi. Deborah Flint (24 Mar 2025); Owens again (23 Jan 2026), tying the word to Dana Point and Capistrano. That is their word. Patrick Nelson’s separate company is where investor suits have alleged Ponzi-like use of one project’s equity to pay the next.
FBI talk on the thread is hearsay. Linda Kline is a real person at the Orange RA (25 May 2025 post). The Bureau has not said it is investigating these DSTs.
Brett’s 31 May 2025 list is the split the filings later confirm: 4th & J and about seventeen others back to Versity I; Walk, One on 4th, Hayworth, Vintage, and Apex staying with Crew.
Entered, alleged
Entered: the Volcano/West 4 money judgment; the JAMS confirmation ($14,550,000, 65/35, Book & Ladder 34/33/33, no remaining $30 million purchase price).
Live claims: KHCA contract and alter-ego (fraud dismissed as duplicative); the two Orange County clawbacks; Delaware IB actions on Vintage and Hayworth.
Alleged in those pleadings: the $56.2 million table, the Capistrano house and Anaheim hotels, the Factory embezzlement, the forged signatures, leftover IB percentages.
Not on this record
4th & J’s PPM is not in the archive. Vintage’s 11 Jan PPM is $75.4 million; Form D and the circular use $87,963,540. The matching supplement is not here. BCS1 remove-trustee opinions for Vintage and Walk were not obtained. McQuade engagement letters were described on the forum, not reviewed.
See Sources.