Is Life Sentence Kosher for Sholom Rubashkin, Jewish Slaughterhouse Boss Guilty of $26 Million Fraud?

By: Caroline Black
Topics: Daily Blotter

Sholom Rubashkin (Personal Photo)

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (CBS/AP) A former boss at an Iowa kosher slaughterhouse is facing a possible life sentence for financial fraud totaling $26 million dollars; however, many Jewish groups and six U.S. attorneys general have come forward to complain that the potential punishment for Sholom Rubashkin exceeds the crime.

The sentencing hearing began Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids for Rubashkin, former executive at a Postville, Iowa meatpacking plant.

A website supporting him states, "Sholom Rubashkin has been treated harshly and vindictively in a prosecution that is likely to go down in history as a shameful permanent stain on American Justice."

Rubashkin was jailed in 2009, when he was convicted on 86 counts of financial fraud for creating fake invoices that led his lender to believe the plant was pulling in more money than it actually was. Prosecutors say the scheme cost the bank $26 million.

Sholom Rubashkin and his family (Personal Photo)

Many who do not question Rubashkin's guilt are challenging the prospect of a life sentence. Twenty-three former prosecutors, including Janet Reno and Edwin Meese III, have signed a letter asking the judge to consider a lighter term for the first-time, non-violent offender.

Jonathan Edelstein, a lawyer and expert on U.S.-Israeli extradition law, said ever since the Enron case, when corporate leaders were found to have lied to investors, the government has come down hard on white-collar crime. Just weeks ago, he noted, Minnesota businessman Tom Petters was sentenced to 50 years for a Ponzi scheme that cost investors $3.7 billion.

But Edelstein still questions such a harsh sentence for Rubashkin.

"Not long ago it would have been considered absurd for a nonviolent criminal to serve a life sentence," he said.

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by jewjewjewish September 17, 2011 12:20 AM EDT: can we find a way to stone this guy? I must be sick because I would like to throw rocks at him until he died. I feel sorry for all the animals that suffered. He didn't even care. Human Scum...; Reply to this comment


by jewjewjewish September 17, 2011 12:17 AM EDT: how could some one be so cruel to Animals. Am I wrong to watching this guy get slaughtered inhumanely? kill this guy slowly and lets laugh at it. Who cares. He is scum. I am a jew and I hate this piece of crap. Just turn your head if you dont like it like he does.; Reply to this comment


by ghcrv June 17, 2010 2:13 PM EDT: you must read this fascinating article by Debbie Maimon

"Rubashkin Acquittal: Behind the Smoke and Mirrors"

www.yated.com/content.asp?categoryid=7&contentid=129; Reply to this comment


by izeeSol123 May 2, 2010 12:59 AM EDT: In November, 2008, Mordechai Korf offered the bank between $21.5 and $22 million to purchase Agriprocessors. Despite presenting his qualifications to the bank, Korf had a very difficult time getting FBBC personnel to meet with him. The bank inexplicably and strangely seemed uninterested in selling.

Eventually Korf met with Phil Lykens and FBBC?s Chairman Dennis Herstein. Lykens told Korf before the meeting that FBBC wanted to get the full amount of their loan and absent such an offer, there was no point in meeting.

In the meeting, Lykens and Herstein acknowledged that between $27M and $29M of bank money was at risk due to AgriProcessors? legal troubles. Nonetheless, they rejected outright Korf's offer of between $21.5M and $22M in cash.

Korf even offered to put money into escrow while the details of the deal were arranged, and made clear that the Rubashkins would not have any ownership interest in the business.

Korf emphasized to the bank that if the company went into bankruptcy and a trustee was appointed, the value of the plant would decrease. One of the things that made Agriprocessors attractive was the company's very strong position in the kosher meat market.

The bank rejected Korf's offer outright, without countering, and closed negotiations. The bank insisted that it would not take anything less than full payment of its loan. Days later, [after bankruptcy could no longer be avoided] the Trustee was appointed.

Who Is Feeding Misinformation To Whom?

In response to the protests flooding the justice department and the U.S. Attorney?s office in Northern Iowa, a government spokesman told ABC News that ?a campaign of misinformation is being waged by influential friends of Sholom Rubashkin.?

The government wants people to believe that scholars and experts who have denounced calls for a life sentence, and are calling instead for fair and judicious treatment for Sholom Rubashkin, are feeding us misinformation.

With the Government Pre-sentencing Memorandum riddled with fraudulent statements, the question is, who is feeding misinformation to whom? Only a few of the lies in this document have been exposed. They are too numerous to address in one column. Should such falsifications as fill this 75-page document, and on the basis of which a man is to be torn from his family and locked up for years, be allowed to pass with impunity?

Perhaps an impartial panel or a senate hearing is in order where the truth can finally emerge. More than the fate of one family is at stake here. As Mr. Lanny Breuer has said, "Public trust and confidence are essential elements of an effective criminal justice system.? At stake is our trust in our nation?s ability to provide justice for all.; Reply to this comment


by asker78452 April 30, 2010 12:01 AM EDT: I have been following this case for a while, and it is national news since it is our federal justice system which affects the nation! Being that most are dependent on condensed descriptions and snippets of the story reported, it is not surprising that one would not see the importance of this case for ALL Americans.

Some things don't add up... Rubashkin was found guilty for falsifying $10,000,000 in A/R invoices to keep a loan which he was paying back until the Govt. targeted him and destroyed his business... They want to give him a life sentence because of the "victims" of his crimes... namely the bank, yet the bank was offered $22 million dollars for their debt in Nov. of 2008 and turned the offer down... Why?

The Govt. knew about the $10M in false invoices as early as Oct. 2008, yet they claim the bank didn't find out about it until almost six months later... Why didn't the Govt. tell the bank to protect "the victim" earlier? The bank continued to lend more money!!

Did they not tell them because it wasn?t apparent that they were actually victims?? Did the Government suspect that the bank was complicit in perpetuating this loan? The bank was making lots and lots of money in payments on this loan! They had more of a motive to falsify documents and or ignore inconsistencies than Rubashkin! They made more on this loan that Rubashkin ever did! Can you say housing bubble? Remember, banks doing everything they could to give out loans, big and small, like candy whether or not a person could afford it! Why didn?t we put all of the people who got a mortgage they couldn?t afford and eventually went into foreclosure and a caused national financial meltdown!

Banks make money on making loans? did they do things that the Feds could go after? Did they not follow Federal regulatory guidelines that could shut them down in this and other loans? Not passing the sniff test for me! Too many unanswered questions! Including how much they actually lost! The Government doesn?t even have a final agreed upon amount! Anywhere from $1M-$26M? but he needs to get a harsh sentence! 25 years/life? For what? Don?t you think you should figure that out first??????; Reply to this comment


by Wildwood1966 April 29, 2010 2:57 PM EDT: okay plain and simple he made a BIG mistook - however they should give him the opportunity to pay it back to the bank (I am sure lots of supporteres would send moneya0 and community service - no good will come out of this father being in prison for life - Enon robbed their people and employees - what this gentleman did is bad but not unforgiveable - how do I start a web page for him?; Reply to this comment

by izeeSol123 April 29, 2010 10:08 AM EDT

LOOK AT THE FACTS:

1. Prosecutors singled out Agriprocessors ? the largest kosher meat production company in the United States ? and authorized a raid by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in May 2008 that was unnecessary, unwise, and singularly destructive.

2. Prosecutors chose against treating Agriprocessors like other meatpacking companies ? such as Swift & Company or Tyson?s ? who employed even more illegal immigrants than Agriprocessors but whom the government allowed to negotiate resolutions to the immigration issues without conducting a raid.

3. Prosecutors summarily rejected Agriprocessor?s attorney?s oral and written requests to resolve the matter through cooperative efforts and instead authorized a raid by 600 federal agents, supported by Blackhawk military helicopters that did enormous physical damage to the Agriprocessors plant and ultimately drove the business into bankruptcy.

4. The raid demolished the economic infrastructure of the Town of Postville, wiped out livelihoods of both legal and illegal workers, and forced Postville?s legitimate businesses to shut down.

5. Sholom Rubashkin was arrested suddenly ? in an effort to garner maximum national publicity ? even though his lawyers were in constant communication with federal prosecutors and knew he would surrender if notified of formal charges.

6. Prosecutors unjustifiably demanded extraordinarily severe bail conditions and ultimately requested that he be denied bail altogether. No other employer in the country whose premises were raided by ICE in the 2006-2008 period was treated with comparable severity or was imprisoned prior to trial or prior to sentencing.

7. Rubashkin was imprisoned for 76 days before his trial on the basis of an outrageous and false argument that asserted that any Jew in the United States could flee to Israel and, under its ?Law of Return,? avoid justice in the United States. And he has been kept in prison after the jury verdict in his case even though he was meticulous in observing the conditions of his eventual release before trial.

8. Prosecutors even opposed a modest request that Rubashkin be permitted to go home under 24-hour guard to observe the Passover Seders with his family.

9. Prosecutors were not content to charge Rubashkin with the offense of violating the immigration laws and bank fraud. In order to aggravate the appearance of his offense for publicity purposes, they returned seven successive indictments, constantly increasing the number of counts until the total was 163. No other employer who was the subject of an ICE immigration raid between 2006-2008 had seven superseding indictments returned against him with ever-increasing numbers of criminal counts.

10. Prosecutors scraped the bottom of the barrel artificially to increase the number of counts against Rubashkin. They found and alleged violations of the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 based on the fact that Agriprocessors was, on occasion, a few days late in paying cattle dealers. No one has ever been charged with a criminal offense under this law or any other law for making late payments.

11. Prosecutors presented highly prejudicial evidence to the jury at Rubashkin?s bank-fraud trial suggesting he was involved in harboring illegal immigrants, and they successfully objected to the admission of evidence he presented refuting his guilt of such charges. After the jury verdict, they dismissed 72 counts of immigration-law charges.

12. Prosecutors have advised the District Court that Rubashkin?s anticipated sentence is more than 20 years, even though the jury found that he did not profit personally from the alleged bank fraud. Other employers raided by ICE from 2006-2008 were either not criminally prosecuted at all, were given probation or received a prison term of one year and a day. The most serious offender received a 10-year sentence.

13. If prosecutors request this prison term for a non-violent first-time financial offense, it will be longer than the average sentence meted out in the United States for violent offenses, including homicide, robbery, sexual abuse, drug trafficking, and offenses involving national security and defense.

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by apprxam May 12, 2010 3:55 AM EDT: The fleeing of jurisdiction to Israel has happened before, so where is the false aspect of the argument?

Are you saying that the United States government is anti-Semitic?


by jeffGordon81 April 29, 2010 8:35 AM EDT: This is national news. Rubashkin did not steal nearly that amount. That is what the prosecutors led you to believe.

He inflated his invoice which allowed him to take a greater loan, now that his company went bankrupt he was unable to pay the whole loan, and the prosecutors led you to believe that he stole all that money!!; Reply to this comment


by babooph April 29, 2010 7:15 AM EDT: A little politics will fix this little problem....US is going towards a third world economy,why not a third world legal system to match...; Reply to this comment


by thesevenveils April 29, 2010 7:09 AM EDT: Who is this person really? With out knowing who he is but reading about what he did, he is a liar and a thief, on not just one or ten, but 38 accounts! He lied to a bank and stole $26 million through his deceit. There are many bank robbers who have stolen less and are serving life sentences. The article points out he didn't use a weapon, it was a non violent crime. Well bank robbers are given separate charges for their violence, he is lucky not to have any.

Still, if you do the crime, be prepared to do the time.

And why is this published as news anyway? Who really cares on a national scale? This is national news isn't it?; Reply to this comment