THEIRP6/IRP5STORY

To whom it may concern:

 

The following chronology of events have been put together to eliminate any and all doubt that the IRP6 were maliciously indicted, prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned for a failure to pay corporate debt even though the government was fully aware that IRP Solutions was a legitimate company with a legitimate software product, and was conducting legitimate sales activities with the Department of Homeland Security, NYPD and other law enforcement agencies. The facts herein support that we entered into good faith contractual agreements with staffing companies to satisfy requests for modifications to our CILC software on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security and the New York City Police Department. The facts show the government interference destroyed IRP's ability to close business and discharge their debt.  The facts herein are based on court records and documents in discovery including corporate activity reports that IRP executives recorded their business activities on a weekly basis between 2002-2004. 

 

While these facts are not exhaustive by any means, they alone are overwhelming proof that the government and the courts wilfully and intentionally ignored irrefutable evidence of the IRP6's innocence, and grossly violated the law and Constitution to gain and uphold a wrongful conviction.  These facts, along with many others, were provided to U.S. Attorney for Colorado John Walsh months before trial in a proffer from the IRP6. Mr. Walsh simply snubbed his nose at our innocence and turned our corporate debt into a criminal offense.  We are in a debtor's prison and have spent the last 39 months in a federal prison camp in Florence, Colorado for a crime we didn't commit.

 

These are the facts that prompted former federal judge H. Lee Sarokin of the Third U.S Circuit Court of Appeals to speak out about our injustice and advocate for our freedom.  Sarokin not only recognized that this was clearly a civil case but, after reviewing the entire court transcript, he also found that the trial and overall legal process was mishandled as well as our constitutional rights were violated. He has nothing to gain by speaking out about our injustice and we are grateful for his advocacy along with A Just Cause who has worked tirelessly to expose this travesty. We are 100% innocent! I am available through A Just Cause to answer further questions and provide additional details/evidence as needed.

 

 

Relevant Facts

 

1/2003 - Colorado Bureau of Investigation, in an email, agrees to purchase and install CILC software (version 1) at a discounted beta price of $375,000.00.

 

12/19/2003 - Bob Davis of Police Magazine receives full-demo of CILC software and publishes article in Feb. 2004.

 

After numerous meetings during 2003, DHS and IRP verbally agree to a $12 million dollar pilot project for CILC.  Paul Tran of DHS confirms this in his testimony at the IRP6 trial.

 

2/2004 - Police Magazine publishes article on CILC software, which states: "CILC is an enterprise level client-server application that could be the detail-oriented you've always wanted for your investigative units.  It may also be the solution for your records management woes and a way to rid yourself of the endless stacks of paper...Developed over the last four years by a team of software engineers, CILC comes with a built-in law enforcement pedigree...This customization and IRP Solutions attention to detail make CILC powerful enough to become your agency's primary computerized investigative management tool."

 

3/8/2004 - Holland and Hart Attorney Greg Goldberg, a former Assistant United States Attorney with the Colorado U.S. Attorney's office, hand-delivers a letter to his former colleague AUSA Matthew T. Kirsch, that IRP was a " bogus" business entity that operated solely with the "specific intent of obtaining money from staffing companies...under the guise of working in conjunction with law enforcement."

6/5/2004 - Week-ending, IRP holds another CILC software demonstration for DHS in DC

Banks recalls that sometime around the Fall of 2004 he received an email from Aslam M. Nawabzada of IBM stating that a large federal agency recommended that they contact them about the CILC software. Banks believes that the "large agency" was either DHS or the DOJ/FBI. 

 

7/31/2004 - Weekending, Bill Witherspoon, Project Manager for DHS' Consolidated Enforcement Environment (CEE) requests an urgent quote for the CILC Confidential Informant Module.  IRP immediately sends quote to Witherspoon that included $500,000.00 in consulting.

 

8/10/2004 - David Banks and Gary Walker meet with Witherspoon and Gilbert Trill of the Secret Service, who is also a member of the CEE team, to review modifications made to CILC on behalf of DHS.

 

9/15/2004 - IRP receives email from Bill Witherspoon on the Federal Investigative Case Management System Initiative (FICMS), which DHS issues an RFI (Request for Information) to receive information on Commercial-Off-The-Shelf software from companies.  IRP participates and formally sends information on CILC as part of RFI.

 

***One week after RFI date closes for receipt of submissions, DHS' Stephen W. Cooper (CEE Program Manager) contacts IRP about coming to DC to present CILC to a joint DHS/DOJ FICMS meeting which he had coordinated.

 

10/28/2004 - Banks and Walker present CILC at joint DHS/DOJ meeting, which four FBI agents from the DOJ's Office of the Chief Information Officer.  During the demonstration the FBI had a lot of questions, including IRP's delivery capability and cleared facility status.  Banks confirms that after the meeting, Cooper, Witherspoon and Trill stated that the FBI was interested in CILC.  Banks also confirms that Cooper also stated that IRP should seek out and partner with a large defense contractor or systems integrator experienced with contracting with the federal government.

 

10/29/2004 - Banks reaches out to large defense contractors and systems integrators, which included Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), Accenture, Northrop Grumman, IBM, Booz Allen Hamilton, Unisys and Lockheed Martin.

 

11/1/2004 - Banks received response from Terry Dymond of CSC.  "We spoke an hour about basic teaming and vetting requirements for both companies as it relates to FICMS," says Banks.  Dymond agrees to send their NDA.

 

11/5/2004 - "Dymond tells Banks that the software they submitted as part of the FICMS RFI was only something DHS/DOJ would use as a "better than nothing" solution.  Banks receives NDA from CSC's subcontract administrator.  "CSC's NDA did not sufficiently protect IRP interests or our intellectual property," says Banks.

 

11/16/2004 - Dymond calls Banks asking whether IRP had selected a partner.  Banks tells her no.

 

11/19/2004 - Dymond tells Banks that he and another CSC executive will fly to New York to meet with Banks and Walker while they were in the city for a demonstration with the NYPD during the week of 11/29/04.  Ms. Dymond also states that DOJ Chief Information Officer Van Hitch said that an RFP would be released in Q1/2005.

 

11/23/2004 - Dymond confirms the meeting in New York for December 2, 2004, at their Park Avenue Offices.

 

12/2004 - Witherspoon contacts IRP and asks for two quotes for the CILC Case Management and Confidential Informant modules for inclusion into their 2005 budget exercises.  IRP sends one quote for $100 million and another $6.2 million for the first phase of implementing the two modules. 

 

12/2/2004 - Banks and Walker meet with Dymond and Hank DiNunzio of CSC but would show only basic functionality of CILC, which didn't please CSC. "Is this all you are going to show us?" Banks remembers DiNunzio saying upon a quick presentation of CILC.  "I told him that because they refused to sign our NDA which had teeth, that we could not show more of CILC's capabilities," says Banks.  "Then he stormed out of the conference room," adds Banks.

 

1/2005 - Gary Hillberry, a retired Immigration and Customs Enforcement official who was working as an independent contractor with IRP for a year with two other federal agents, provided an affidavit to the FBI which states: "IRP Solutions truly had a viable product and appeared to be moving forward to acquire state and federal law enforcement contracts for their product."

 

2/3/2005 - FBI Special Agent Melissa McRae from DOJ's CIO's officer, who attended the CILC demonstration for FICMS on October 28, 2004, swears in an affidavit: "Cooper invited the FBI to attend a case management software demonstration presentation being performed by IRP."

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2/9/2005 - Twenty-one FBI agents raid IRP Solution's offices in Colorado Springs.  Search warrant affidavit by Agent John Smith cited the seizure of financial records and states that IRP Solutions is a "purported software" company.  "From 9am-10pm, the FBI imaged every computer in our business including all engineering computers," says Banks.  FBI search warrant inventory documents show that FBI seized intellectual property including patent information and software engineering notebooks, legal/attorney documents, non-disclosure agreements, etc.  "Many of the salient financial documents they claimed to be looking for were left behind," says Banks.

 

2/12/2005 - Gazette Telegraph Newspaper releases article about the raid which included verbatim language from the search warrant documents that were under court-ordered seal until 2/15/2005. During court hearings, AUSA Kirsch admits that someone in the FBI must have leaked the information to the paper.  The article stated: "The [staffing] agencies were told that temporary labor was needed to develop software that WOULD BE SOLD to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, The Department of Homeland Security, the New York Police Department, and other agencies."  "There appears to have been a Freudian slip when the FBI official who leaked the information to the paper," says Banks.  The paper's reporting that the software WOULD BE SOLD contradicts government allegations in the indictment that IRP executives told staffing companies they had a "current or impending contracts" with large government agencies such as DHS and NYPD that induced companies to do business with IRP," adds Banks.  Numerous emails in discovery confirm statements about current or impending contracts were NEVER made to staffing companies.  

 

3/2005 - FBI Director Robert Mueller, apparently speaking about FICMS, tells Congress in a hearing that the FBI has expended significant time and effort since a previous hearing in before the committee in 2004 "confirming requirements for a new case management system, as well as developing a strategy for procurement that will take advantage of off-the-shelf products."  Mueller also states that the contract award was expected to be granted in the summer of 2005 with the first phase of the case management being implemented 9-12 months later and a basic case management system being implemented by Phase 2 in 2006. Lockheed Martin was ultimately awarded the contract, which was called Sentinel. But according to former FBI Chief Technology Officer Jack Israel in an interview with FierceGovernment IT in 2012, Phase 2 of Sentinel failed due to "technical problems in building an independent electronic case management system."  Ironically, Bill Witherspoon of DHS, in December 2004, asked and received a $100 million quote from IRP Solutions for the first phase of implementation of CILC case management.  Witherspoon told IRP that he needed the quote for inclusion in their 2005 budget exercise. (See 12/2004 entry above).  In 2014, the DOJ Inspector General report stated: "Based on the feedback received from Sentinel users, we are concerned that Sentinel does not appear to have met users’ expectations and needs." The FBI still lacks a working independent electronic case management system today.

 

8/2005 - Richard Powers, head of the Denver Division of the FBI, sends a letter to a staffing company representative stating: "we (the FBI) are unable to assist you in this matter and therefore no investigation will be conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. However, the FBI has made it a matter of record.  We feel this case would be best handled civilly and have noted that you have initiated legal action against the company (IRP)."

 

1/2007 - A grand juror points out to the prosecutor, "But if I don't pay somebody for work, they've done, that is not a federal crime." The government fails to get an indictment from this grand jury. David Zirpolo (IRP6) testified before the grand jury and was told by prosecutors he was not a target of the investigation.  Zirpolo surprised Kirsch by bringing a folder with documentary evidence of IRP's innocence. "As the government was trying to rush me out of the grand jury, I raised the folder and ask the grand jurors if they wanted to see proof of our innocence," says Zirpolo.  "A number of grand jurors raised their hand to see the folder and the government was forced to let them have it," adds Zirpolo.  "I am certain it was the reason Kirsch failed to gain an indictment from the grand jury," concludes Zirpolo.  Kirsch would take it to another grand jury in 2009 but eliminate all possibilities that any exculpatory evidence would be seen by that grand jury.

 

2007 - 8th Edition of the book "Criminal Investigation" written by Wayne Bennett and Karen Hess, states that CILC "organizes major investigations by the three common investigative phases...The software meets the standards described in the [DOJ's] National Institute of Justice tract, 'Crime Scene Investigation: A Guide for Law Enforcement...CILC's prosecution phase helps both investigators and prosecutors prepare for court...CILC allows investigators to generate waiver, press release and search warrant forms."

 

12/2008 - Banks sends a letter to Philadelphia Deputy Mayor of Justice and Public Safety, Everett Gillison, with an offer concerning the CILC Search Warrant module. Banks states: "IRP has developed the most comprehensive enforcement and investigation solution available in the world today.  We are so confident our solution will improve law enforcement operations and efficiency that we are willing to deliver this key module at absolutely NO CHARGE and let you and Police Commissioner Ramsey experience its benefits firsthand."  "Our first goal was to demonstrate that CILC could resolve a key problem with search warrant software that IBM was failing to deliver on as part of the $4.7 million contract they were awarded in 2002," says Banks.  Public records show that IBM had overrun the contract to cost of $7.1 million dollars and had failed to substantially deliver on the contract after seven years had elapsed.  Soon thereafter Banks would meet in Philly with Gillison who subsequently contacted Gery Cardenas, Director of Information Technology for Philly PD. "It took us only two weeks to incorporate PPD's search warrant forms and process into CILC," says Banks.

 

1/7/2009 - Banks sends email to Gillison and copies Cardenas: "We are moving forward and completing the Search Warrant Module as outlined and agreed to in our letter to you.  This solution will provide PPD with substantial capabilities that will drastically improve search warrant operations.  At such time that the City of Philadelphia and PPD want to add customizations, it will be very easy to do and cost-effective given the flexibility of our software framework.  We are looking forward to presenting this to you and PPD over the next few weeks."

 

1/12/2009 - Gillison responds to Banks' email and copies Cardenas and Allen Frank, the CIO for the City of Philadelphia: "Thank you. I look forward to getting an update on how this might integrate well with our plans for the police." During this period Banks had also developed business with the Inspector General's Office and had negotiated contract terms to deliver CILC to them.

 

1/16/2009 - Amy Kurland, Inspector General for the City of Philadelphia states in an email to CIO Allen Frank and Deputy CIO Dan Heitzer and Chief Investigator Lorelei Larson: "I will make arrangements with Mayor's (Michael Nutter) office for a thank you to the company (IRP).  Can we please get moving on this as soon as possible?" "I received a call from Ms. Larson to discuss scheduling a time to meet Mayor Nutter." says Banks. "It was very exciting," adds Banks.  Lorelei Larson also sends an email to Banks: "All of the OIG staff is very excited about this venture."

 

2/13/2009 - Banks sends an email to Gery Cardenas discussing the completion of the search warrant module.  "IRP Solutions made a commitment to the city, PPD and Deputy Mayor Gillison to deliver this capability and we are READY to deliver.  We only now await on PPD/City to provide us with the server/IT infrastructure required for installation."

 

2/18/2009 - the FBI interviewed Gery Cardenas.  According to the report of investigation, Cardenas states that CILC "looks exactly like what Cardenas and the PPD was looking to purchase." Cardenas noted that the PPD has had a contract with IBM for the past five or six years and IBM is starting to crack and not deliver. IBM has fallen pretty far behind and the main point of contention with the software product from IBM happens to be the search warrant piece.  Cardenas also states that PPD "was very close to having the product installed prior to Cardenas' discovery of the investigation." The report also notes that "Banks was somehow able to get an introduction into the Inspector General's Office" and as a result "Michael King (CIO, Information Security) was tasked to work up the technical and system requirements so that the City could be prepared to install the software that Banks would provide."  The report further notes that "Once Cardenas figures out what is going on with and Banks IRP, he contacted King and told King that he had spoken to the FBI and that King should stop the work he was doing."  "After Cardenas' interview, I received a call from IG Kurland's secretary telling me that Ms. Kurland had received a call from AUSA Kirsch and he told her an indictment was coming and that she regrettably had to terminate business with us," says Banks.

 

5/2009 - The IRP6 are indicted by a second grand jury where the government's only witness is FBI Agent Robert Moen, who replaced Smith.

 

7/2011 - Andrew Albarelle, Principal Executive Officer with the Remy Corporation, a Denver-based staffing company, wrote a letter to Colorado U.S. Attorney John Walsh explaining how staffing companies work and questioning the government's indictment based on a theory that statements about "current or impending contracts" induced staffing companies to engage in business with IRP.  "In our due diligence of companies," Albarelle explained, "we have found that the term contract has little-to-no bearing on whether we engage with that company or not."  We base our decision to engage with a company on its credit-worthiness, cash flow or the product they are developing." Albarelle also discussed his work with the FBI: "I have been a member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's InfraGard from almost nine years and have assisted the FBI in an investigation of a false network of candidates interviewing (bait and switch) with staffing firms.  Albarelle implications were underscored by Remy Account Manager, Kelli Baucom, who also sent a letter to Walsh on July 20, 2011.  "It is important to understand there is risk involved in the Staffing/Recruiting business," explained Baucom.  "These agencies/firms involved were in no way forced to conduct business with these men - they CHOSE to do so."  Baucom further elaborated that "These businesses should stop trying to place blame on these men (IRP6) and they should take the time to re-evaluate their decision to assume the risk! In this business - as in any business, 'you have to spend money to make money.' I think these agencies saw the potential to make a lot of money and chose to assume the risk."

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11/19/2010 - FBI Agent Smith states in a court hearing that if IRP had paid their corporate debts there would be not criminal case.

 

10/13/2011 - FBI Agent Smith again states that there would be no criminal case if IRP had paid their debts.