Correction: An earlier version of this article reported that the Security and Exchange Commission appointed an oversight committee to help Aequitas investors. The SEC appointed an interim receiver, and the receiver appointed the oversight committee, not the SEC.

In addition, a quote from Eric Davis about the company’s health was incorrectly attributed to Robert Blaha, and Aequitas rates of return were incorrectly described as “guaranteed.”

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The collapse of an Oregon investment firm that federal regulators allege defrauded investors has ensnared hundreds of clients of a Monument-based wealth management company that served as a preferred custodian for investments into the firm.

Eric Davis, president of the Monument firm, Integrity Wealth Management, is working with an oversight committee appointed by a receiver to help Integrity investors recoup some of the almost $100 million they invested into Oregon-based Aequitas Capital Management, which was shut down and placed in receivership by a federal judge in April. The SEC filed a lawsuit in March alleging Aequitas (pronounced equi-tas) defrauded 1,500 investors out of $350 million.

Colorado Senate candidate Robert Blaha is the vice-chairman of Integrity, but said that as a member of the board he doesn’t oversee day-to-day investment decisions.

Blaha and Davis said Integrity has gone out of its way to help people who invested in Aequitas.

“We certainly feel the burden with the clients that invested,” Davis said. “People that put in money are going to lose money, we just don’t know how much. That is a burden we carry with our clients.”

Integrity’s clients, who Davis said number in the hundreds, were an elite group – the investments in Aequitas products were available only to “qualified” investors with a net-worth of at least $1 million or an annual income of more than $300,000. The investment was considered high risk, but offered returns between 5 percent and 15 percent, according to the SEC.

“Alternative” investments like Aequitas were Integrity’s specialty, which gave the Monument company a national profile. Davis said Integrity was considered a “preferred custodian” nationwide for Aequitas investments, which meant Integrity could offer the preferred rates for these investments. A custodian holds investments for their clients, as directed by the clients. Davis also said very few local investors held investments in Aequitas funds.

Davis said Aequitas’s woes have not threatened Integrity’s viability.

“It doesn’t pose a systemic threat at all to Integrity as a wealth management group,” Davis said. “In fact, all of this came out in January. We’ve had a decent year from an earnings standpoint.”

Integrity Wealth Management is a spin-off company from Integrity Bank and Trust, which Blaha co-founded. The wealth management company broke off from the bank in December.

The wealth management branch began working with Aequitas in 2011 and connected Aequitas products to elite investors after it became part of a national network of investment advisers including TD Ameritrade, First Trust and Millennium Trust.

About 90 percent of the business Integrity did with Aequitas was investments in funds where other wealth managers advised clients. The other 10 percent were clients working with Integrity advisers to direct investments and investments made directly by Integrity through an investment fund, Davis said.

Davis said as soon as they knew Aequitas was in trouble, Integrity’s clients were told. He said it was an exercise in transparency, in part because Blaha insisted that the company live up to its name.

Davis said he vetted the Aequitas investment opportunities and noted that through 2014 Aequitas received clean audits despite holding millions of dollars in bad student loan debt from a defunct for-profit college, Corinthian Colleges. Aequitas apparently hid that bad debt from both its shareholders and investors.

The wealth management operation has grown from about $100 million to $400 million from 2011 to 2015.

“I fully believe that the receiver who was appointed is taking his fiduciary duty to investors to the highest level possible,” Davis said.

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Contact Megan Schrader: 286-0644

Twitter: @CapitolSchrader