A Wenatchee-based private equity firm with an office in the Tri-Cities is now in receivership after state regulators allege its officers misappropriated investments through actions including making Ponzi-like payments and its founder using nearly $780,000 to pay for items such as a boat slip and down payments on a vehicle and private home. 

The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DF) filed a summary order and statement of charges against Joel Frank, founder of Equilis Capital Partners as well as his firm and the real estate funds it manages at the end of April. Regulators are seeking to permanently revoke and prohibit the registrations of Frank and Equilis, the return of all misappropriated funds and payment of fines and investigative cots. 

DFI also obtained a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in Thurston County Superior Court against all those entities and their employees as well as a recently created real estate fund. The court agreed to appoint a receiver, Seattle-based High Plateau Asset Management, LLC, over the entities, allowing it to determine the amount of misappropriated funds and any recovery actions. A final determination has not been made and Frank may still seek a hearing on the charges.

 “DFI is taking these extraordinary measures in light of the significant investor harm we believe has been perpetrated by these individuals and organizations,” DFI Acting Director of Securities Anderson said in a statement. “This type of alleged activity is precisely why state regulatory oversight and examinations are crucial.” 

Equilis’ office at 4309 W. 27th Place in the Cynergy Centre in Kennewick’s Southridge area was closed on May 21 when visited by the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business. That branch’s social media was also no longer available and Equilis’ website can no longer be viewed. 

Equilis was founded in 2017 by Frank and DFI said he and his firm sold more than $39 million worth of real estate investments to 90 investors, most of them in Washington state, from Equilis’ founding until October 2025. As of this spring, Equilis managed five real estate investment funds with another in the process of acquiring some properties from those existing funds. 

None of Equilis’ investments were registered in the state, instead relying on exemptions available under federal law.  

“These exemptions allow companies to raise money without oversight by state or federal regulators,” DFI said in a statement. “The parties were therefore able to avoid detection of their unlawful acts for years.” 

According to regulators, between 2020 and 2025 Equilis allegedly misappropriated money by using new investments to make payments to existing investors and using more than $734,000 of money from one of its funds, ECP Opportunities, to make payouts to investors in other funds.  

“For example, on August 14, 2025, the Respondents received $85,000.00 in new investment funds, which were deposited into Cheney Park II’s bank account. Prior to the deposit, the account had a balance of less than $5,000.00,” according to court documents. “The next day, ECP Opportunities received a check from Cheney Park II for $55,000.00. ECP Opportunities’ bank account had a balance of less than $250 prior to cashing the check from Cheney Park II. The same day that the Respondents made the deposit into ECP Opportunities’ bank account, the Respondents began distributing dividend payments to existing investors. The Respondents therefore used some of the new investment funds to make dividend payments to present investors.” 

At the same time, Frank allegedly received nearly $780,000 worth of dividends he was not entitled to and used to pay personal expenses, such as $24,000 for a down payment on a Corvette, nearly $23,000 for construction of a garage and $158,000 for a boat slip. Another $460,000 was used to make a down payment on a multi-million dollar residence. 

“Although the Respondents characterized the disbursements to Frank as ‘dividend distributions'...(Frank) had not earned enough in dividends for the payouts to be considered legitimate dividend distributions,” regulators said in court documents. “Furthermore, some of these ‘dividend distributions’ occurred at times when no other investors received distributions.” 

Letters have been sent to investors regarding the state’s action and receiver. Investors may contact the receiver, High Plateau Asset Management, LLC, at [email protected] with questions about the status of their investments.