Members of Springs church protest fraud case, FBI raid

By Electa Draper | The Denver Post

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.

Colorado Springs Fellowship members picket Wednesday, saying the church shouldn’t have been raided in a fraud probe. (Reza A. Marvashti, The Denver Post )

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. Read more.

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