Churchwomen shielded by straw hats against the blazing sun protested at Stout and 19th streets Tuesday and Wednesday against federal prosecutors who they say have wrongfully involved the Colorado Springs Fellowship Church in a fraud case.
Several churchmen carried signs reading “Department of Injustice” and “Guilty Until Proven Innocent.”
Pastor Rose Banks’ son, David A. Banks, is one of six men indicted in a 5-year-old mail- and wire-fraud case against software company IRP Solutions Corp.
A grand jury handed down a 25-count indictment in June 2009 stemming from a 2005 FBI raid, charging the six with fraud in never paying $4 million or more the company owed to about 40 companies that provided temporary labor to IRP.
Banks said the FBI and prosecutors selectively targeted only IRP officers and contract workers who were church members. The storefront interdenominational church founded in 1981 by Rose Banks has a congregation of 300 to 500.
“We don’t know if it’s racial bias or anti-religious bigotry, or what,” David Banks said.
Prosecutors charge that IRP executives defrauded the companies by submitting orders for temporary staff to help work on software designed for law enforcement agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the New York Police Department. However, the software contracts were nonexistent, prosecutors claim.
Banks said the software contracts were under negotiation and close to being finalized but were never signed. He said federal prosecutors are trying to criminalize IRP for getting behind in paying its debts to labor providers.
The six indicted are set to stand trial Jan. 31.
“There was no fraud,” Banks said. “Several staffing companies sued us and were paid. We intended to pay them all. But we’ve been unable to make money and pay vendors because of government interference in a civil matter.”
Even more disturbing, the 42-year-old Banks said, is that while neither the church nor his mother has been named in the indictments, the FBI raided IRP Corp. offices and seized church records, including religious diaries, and the bank records of the church and some members.
And Banks’ sister, Lawanna Clark, a church counselor, is serving a six-month prison sentence on a perjury charge related to the case. She is due for release in August.
“It’s been very tough on the family,” Banks said.
Church representatives filed a claim Nov. 24 against the Department of Justice for abuse of power. The U.S. attorney’s office has denied all allegations of racial or religious discrimination.
Meanwhile, the church has launched a nonprofit called A Just Cause to work for reform of federal laws and practices.
“People don’t understand that the federal government can ruin your life before they prove their case,” Banks said.
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, the story incorrectly
said where church records, including religious diaries, were seized
in an FBI raid. The church records and diaries were seized in a
raid of IRP Corp. offices.
