Community Advocate and Platinum Music Producer make song for IRP6

Following an FBI raid in 2005, a criminal investigation and two grand jury hearings in 2007 and 2009, six executives of IRP Solutions Corporation went to trial in the fall of 2011. The case was tried by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Kirsch in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. The defendants—David Banks, Demetrius Harper, Gary Walker, Clinton Stewart, David Zirpolo and Kendrick Barnes—represented themselves pro se after feeling they did not have accurate legal representation. The Honorable Christine M. Arguello served as the judge in this case.

Opening statements began September 27, 2011. In opening statements and throughout the remainder of the trial, Mr. Kirsch accused the defendants of running a scam by committing conspiracy, mail and wire fraud to gain $5 million worth of free labor from staffing companies. The prosecution insisted that the defendants openly lied to several staffing companies by stating that IRP Solutions had signed contracts with law enforcement agencies to sell their software, CILC; thus, the executives committed fraud.

The defense admitted that some of the facts in Kirch’s opening statement were true, but many were false. Mr. Harper told the jury that at no time did any of the executives tell staffing companies there was a final contract with law enforcement to sell the software. While the execs did say they were negotiating a contract—which was true—they did not tell staffing companies they had officially signed a contract with law enforcement agencies.

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IRP Solutions: A legitimate business with legitimate software

In The IRP Six on April 19, 2013 at2:02 pm

Is the American Dream a Nightmare for Blacks?

April 10, 2013 | Filed under: Commentary | Posted by: H.A. Jabar

Six IT professionals, five black and one white, had a dream of developing law enforcement software that would assist local, state, and federal agencies in sharing information. They built a small company that concentrated on developing a software application called CILC, which stands for Case Investigative Life Cycle. This software was developed to assist law enforcement in investigating a case through to prosecution. The necessity of this type of software was overly apparent as the government indicated the main reason 9/11 was able to occur was because of the inability of government agencies to share information.

Unfortunately for these six men (the IRP-6), their patriotic love for their country was rewarded with 7 to 11 year sentences in federal prison. On February 9th 2005, IRP Solutions (an 18 employee black owned company in Colorado Springs, Colorado) was raided by over twenty FBI agents. The FBI received a subpoena on the basis that IRP Solutions had “purported” software. In other words, the FBI alleged that IRP Solutions did not actually have software at all.

Coincidentally, the raid of IRP Solutions occurred a few days after the FBI had to explain at Congressional hearings why they wasted $400 million of the taxpayer’s money developing law enforcement software that did not work. The FBI was embarrassed in front of the whole world as being incompetent and wasteful.

During the raid at IRP Solutions the FBI attempted to herd all the employees into one room, while they went about imaging all of the company’s computers. The subpoena indicated that they were there for financial records, but oddly enough they left the financial records in the middle of the floor and opted to spend a day’s worth of time seeing what information they could retrieve from IRP Solution’s intellectual property.
Why would the FBI question whether IRP Solutions had real software when Police Technology Magazine reported on the functionality of IRP Solution’s Law Enforcement Software, CILC?

How does such a strange turn of the events come about for six highly intelligent, (some of whom were ex-military men) that never committed a crime before? These six men, who attended the same church for over 20 years, were competing with global giants, such as IBM, Deloitte, and Lockheed Martin for government contracts that were literally worth hundreds of millions of dollars, scaling into the billions.

IRP Solutions had a ‘secret sauce’ that the global behemoths did not. CILC was the brainchild of computer scientist Gary Walker who spent nine years developing law enforcement software previous to starting IRP solutions. He worked diligently with local agencies to understand the day-to-day processes of investigations all the way through to prosecution. CILC was software that was designed to work in accord with the daily procedures and tasks of law enforcement officials.

The large global companies that competed with IRP solutions develop their software from their own interpretations of how things should be done. So one company, IRP solutions, designed software around the daily operations of their users, while the other companies built software from the basis of ‘do it how we say do it’.

The result was that the Department of Homeland Security, Philadelphia Police Department, and New York Police Department advised large companies to partner with IRP solutions. What an insult! After numerous attempts to steal the software, other methods were applied.

The six executives that ran IRP Solutions (the IRP-6) are currently in federal prison in Florence, Colorado serving sentences ranging from 7 to 11 years for mail and wire fraud. The debt that IRP Solutions owed to staffing companies was used as a guise to eliminate competition and jail six innocent men.

The IRP-6 are fighting their unjust conviction with an appeal. They are being assisted by a nonprofit agency for the wrongfully convicted, A Just Cause. You can learn more about these six men at freetheirp6.org, you can like their Facebook page at Free the IRP6 and you can view many interviews on their YouTube channel freetheirp6.

Platinum producer and son of the late Roger Troutman, Larry Gates, has supported the IRP-6 by collaborating to produce a song and Music Video, ‘IRP-6 Needs Justice’ . The original song was inspired by the wrongful conviction of the six executives at IRP-Solutions and can be viewed on YouTube.

H.A. Jabar is the Founder and CEO of Jabar International, a Freelance Writer, a Motivational Speaker, Youth Advocate, and Author of A Well-Made Man: Building the Temple of Self. He is a graduate of Arizona State University where he was an NCAA All-America wrestler and Pac-10 Conference Champion.

Colorado Springs software executives sentenced in $5.1 million scheme

Posted: 07/30/2012 07:12:15 PM MDT
July 31, 2012 1:18 AM GMTUpdated: 07/30/2012 07:18:26 PM MDT

The Denver Post/denverpost.com

In a series of sentencing hearings this week and last week, six former software company executives from Colorado Springs were sentenced to between 87 and 135 months in federal prison on fraud convictions.

They were convicted in October on mail and wire fraud charges that involved hiring 42 staffing companies in the state to test software for law enforcement, then left $5.1 million in unpaid charges from the company.

The men lied to vendors about government contracts and never had any income to pay the staffing charges, prosecutors said.

David A. Banks and Gary L. Walker were sentenced to 135 months each; Demetrius K. Harper, Clinton A. Stewart and David A. Zirpolo received 121 months each. Kendrick Barnes received 87 months.

They also were ordered to pay restitution to the staffing companies they defrauded.

Prosecutors said the executives lied to the companies to provide and pay employees to test software. The men were indicted in 2009.

Members of Colorado Springs Fellowship Church have protested the indictment and conviction. David Banks’ mother is the pastor there.

The software involved in the case was designed for law enforcement agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the New York Police Department. But the contracts the six alleged to have did not exist, prosecutors said.

“The sentences handed down to these defendants appropriately reflects the seriousness of the specific crimes they committed,” said James Yacone. agent in charge of the FBI’s Denver office, said in a statement. “The number of victims and amount of loss were significant. Hopefully this will serve as a deterrent to others contemplating such crimes in the future.”

Read more: Colorado Springs software executives sentenced in $5.1 million scheme – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_21194874/colorado-springs-software-executives-sentenced-5-1-million#ixzz2OcXCSEGQ

The Gazette

Springs pastor claims bias in ruling
November 12, 2011 3:00 PM

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THE GAZETTE

Weeks after six members of a predominantly black church in Colorado Springs were convicted of wire fraud by a federal jury, the church’s pastor continues to assert their innocence.

Pastor Rose Banks renewed claims that federal authorities unfairly targeted members of Colorado Springs Fellowship Church, alleging the prosecutions were tainted by racism and unfair tactics.

“I think at this point, we’re disillusioned with the system itself,” said Banks, whose son, David Banks, and son-in-law, Gary Walker, are among those convicted in a scheme that authorities say netted them $5 million.

The six face up to 20 years in prison and a $10 million fine. They are scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 14.

Rose Banks’ daughter, LaWanna Clark, received a six-month sentence after a related perjury conviction in 2010.

The criminal case focused on the business dealings of a fledgling software company called IRP Solutions.

With offices just down the street from the church, and an employee roster rounded out by church members, the company said it was close to a series of lucrative deals when it was raided by FBI agents in February 2005.

A 2009 grand jury indictment alleged the company was peddling sham software while bilking staffing companies it relied upon to supply labor. The men profited by submitting phony work orders on nonexistent contracts, the indictment said.

The men countered they had accrued “normal business debt” while pursuing big-dollar contracts for software designed to help law enforcement agencies manage their investigative files and reports.

One sale could have paid the company’s debts, said Cliff Walker, an IRP executive, who said one potential payout approached $100 million.

Cliff Walker, who wasn’t charged, said the $5 million went to employees, consultants and contractors, not IRP executives. Drained of resources, the men defended themselves at trial after concluding their government-appointed attorneys had sided against them, Rose Banks said.

“If they’re going to run with $5 million, they would have done it by now,” she said.

Rose Banks and her supporters say the government investigators singled out company officials who belonged to the church, located at 451 Windchime Place off East Woodmen Road. The government also appeared focused on tying the church itself to wrongdoing, they say.

According to Banks, government investigators obtained church banking records in 2007 without subpoenas, a claim that forms the basis for a federal lawsuit still pending in U.S. District Court.

“You just don’t bring a church into it unless you have grounds for it, and (an assistant U.S. attorney) didn’t have grounds for it,” she said. The church wasn’t accused of participating in the alleged scheme.

Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Denver, has denied that racism played a role in the prosecutions. The company’s arguments that federal agents exceeded their lawful authority were dismissed by a federal judge, who permitted the government to use the disputed financial records at trial.

Pastor Banks — who believes that she too was an investigative target — said the legal trouble began when a small, black-owned business thrust itself into competition with much larger, and more powerful, corporations.

Money interests and racism tilted the court system against the men, she said.

Those arguments are likely familiar to worshippers at Colorado Springs Fellowship Church. Rose Banks said the legal saga was discussed at weekly briefings to the church members, and sometimes figured into sermons.

“If I’m preaching on Sunday morning and my message deals with anything referencing justice, that may come up,” Banks said.

Rose Banks founded the nondenominational church in 1981 when she and her husband took over a Bible study group hosted while he was stationed with the military in Bamberg, Germany. Later that year, they moved to Colorado Springs and opened a small storefront church on South Eighth Street with a congregation of about 10 members. The church now accommodates up to 700 worshippers a week, officials said.

Read more: The Gazette.

Members of Colorado Springs Fellowship say federal prosecutors have wrongly involved their church in a case in which the pastor’s son and other congregants stand accused of defrauding dozens of Colorado employment companies of millions of dollars.

The pastor and congregants have questioned whether the case was motivated by religious bigotry and racial prejudice.

However, federal prosecutors investigating David Banks, the 42-year-old son of Pastor Rose Banks, said clerical collars had nothing to do with it. They were after white-collar criminals.

“This prosecution has nothing to do with religion. It has nothing to do with race,” said U.S. attorney’s office spokesman Jeff Dorschner.

Nevertheless, the church filed an “abuse of process” claim against the U.S. attorney’s office in Denver and is asking for $75 million in damages for “vindictive” pursuit of the church and harm to the pastor’s reputation.

During the fraud investigation of David Banks’ software development business IRP Solutions Corp., church bank records and its members’ bank records and religious diaries were wrongfully seized, church board members said.

“I felt like they raped us,” Rose Banks said.

Neither she nor the church has been charged in the case, David Banks said, yet the prosecution focused much of the grand jury proceedings on the nondenominational church she founded in 1981, which has grown to 600 or 700 members.

“You have millions of dollars missing, and you have to find out where it went,” Dorschner said. “All records were lawfully seized.”

Churchwomen, in what looked like Sunday best, twice braved scorching heat to protest outside the federal building in downtown Denver against what they consider unfair treatment of the church.

Fellowship member Ethel Lopez called the government’s actions against the church “unbelievable” and “mind-boggling.”

Church members, Dorschner said, have a right to protest. “We respect that. But it’s a complex case. They might not know all that’s been going on.”

After six years of investigation, David Banks, who is IRP’s chief operating officer, and five others are set to stand trial in January for allegedly defrauding 46 temporary-placement or staffing companies in Denver and across the state between 2002 and 2005.

David Banks and two others indicted also serve on the Fellowship board.

Payments questioned

In June 2009, a grand jury handed down a 25-count indictment charging the defendants with federal mail and wire fraud because they mailed allegedly false invoices.

The alleged fraud totaled more than $5 million, paid by companies that placed temp workers with IRP Solutions. The workers included many that IRP and related firms had specifically identified as the software engineers, security guards and other qualified temps they needed to help them develop their product.

The placement companies also offered payroll service for these workers, generating the temps’ paychecks and thus advancing tens of thousands of dollars to IRP to pay a few dozen workers. But IRP then didn’t reimburse the companies for the payrolling.

When one staffing company would cut off services because it wasn’t getting reimbursed for paychecks or paid for services, IRP would find another.

However, David Banks said, the unpaid invoices were just overdue business debts, not a federal crime.

Court documents indicate that some employees were working for, and getting paid by, more than one staffing company for the same periods of work at IRP — apparent double-dipping in the same work period.

David Banks and other IRP executives, including some of his co-defendants, were among those who submitted time cards as temp workers to be paid by staffing companies.

Some paychecks were then deposited into personal bank accounts, but some were deposited into IRP accounts and others into church accounts, according to investigators. Investigators noted that many temp workers were members of Colorado Springs Fellowship.

The implication that the church was involved in a kickback scheme or money laundering is “absurd,” said Sam Thurman, who handles public relations for the church and IRP, and is on the church board. Some church members simply sign over checks to the church as a donation, he said.

“The FBI raided IRP Solutions (in February 2005) with 20-plus armed agents where their actions and language communicated a clear racial bias against the primarily African-American company,” IRP officials said in a recently released statement. “The only white executive in the company, Mr. David Zirpolo, never received a search of his person or his belongings and was simply allowed to leave with his laptop and documents, while the African-American personnel were corralled and forced into the cafeteria.”

Zirpolo is one of the six indicted, along with Demetrius K. Harper, Gary L. Walker, Clinton A. Stewart and Kendrick Barnes.All are church members.

Law-enforcement aid

Banks said the case is doubly strange because IRP’s software is meant to assist law-enforcement agencies, including the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the New York Police Department, with case management.

“This was no scam,” Thurman said.

IRP was pursuing contracts with federal agencies potentially worth hundreds of millions that would have enabled it to pay its debts, David Banks said, but the process took too long and the company overextended itself. Nevertheless, Banks said, IRP is a legitimate business with a real product.

The FBI initially tried to show that IRP was just a front for this payroll scheme, but it couldn’t, because the software exists, Thurman said.

The indictment states that defendants falsely represented to staffing companies that they “had large current or impending contracts with one or more large government agencies.”

Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com

Read more: Springs church accuses prosecutors of bias in fraud case – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_15946278#ixzz2TDhBfb4q
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