"A True Story of Going to Prison for Debt: The IRP6 Story
There is a federal court case that you may not have heard
about, but it is a situation that can happen to anyone from any walk of
life. This is the story of the IRP6.
Who are the IRP6?
The IRP6 are IT professionals who are currently incarcerated in a
federal prison in Colorado, accused and convicted of mail and wire fraud. The IRP6 were executives of an IT start-up company
called IRP Solutions Corporation.
IRP started in February 2003. It was marketing its flagship Case Investigative
Life Cycle (CILC®) software solution to major federal, state and local law
enforcement agencies. Prospects included
the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Justice (DOJ) and the
New York City Police Department (NYPD).
IRP executives were convinced that they were on the verge of closing
business with a major governmental agency until the FBI raided the business in Feb
2005.
IRP Solutions was raided by the FBI for allegedly
scamming staffing companies. What really
happened was the company responded to requests from the government to modify
the CILC software and got behind on paying invoices. In order to modify their software IRP had to
use temporary staffing companies that specialized in technology professionals. IRP brought these “temps” on board to work on
the software, but when IRP did not close business as quickly as it thought,
that was when invoices went delinquent and allegations of wrongdoing came up.
This is primarily a story about the vagueness of federal
fraud law and how federal prosecutors can use the vagueness of the law to indict,
try, convict, and sentence people who are conducting normal business practices.
The IRP6 case is a corporate debt collection case that was
criminalized by an over-zealous FBI agent and an over-empowered Assistant U.S.
Attorney. When FBI Special Agent John
Smith orchestrated the raid on IRP, he got a search warrant stating, in so many
words, that IRP was a front company.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Kirsch then prosecuted the case although
there were evidence and expert witnesses that would substantiate the legitimacy
of IRP Solutions as a business. Then
Federal Judge Christine Arguello, who presided over the case, did not give the
IRP6 any reasonable consideration or benefit of the doubt during the
trial. In fact, transcripts are missing
that would show critical rights violations that occurred during the trial.
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| Federal Judge Christine Arguello |
The prosecution argued that IRP misrepresented their
business position and that IRP never had a viable product. The jury did not get a chance to hear a solid
defense but rather, they heard a prosecution narrative that was crafted to show
crimes where there were no crimes. The
prosecution used the vagueness of federal fraud law to achieve the wrongful
conviction of IRP by convincing the jury that it was their intent to commit
fraud and run a scam.
Who are the IRP6?
They are Gary Walker, CEO; David Banks, COO; Clinton Stewart, VP; David
Zirpolo, VP; Kendrick Barnes, CIO; and Demetrius Harper, CEO/DKH.
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| The IRP6 |
For complete insights into the IRP6 story, please visit www.freetheirp6.org."
