wildcard
29th April 2010, 12:15 AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/us/29postville.html?ref=us
Call the rabbi, this jew has been a bad boy.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/04/29/us/29postville_CA1/29postville_CA1-thumbStandard.jpg
OY!
Life Sentence Is Debated for Meat Plant Ex-Chief
By JULIA PRESTON
Published: April 28, 2010
In a final chapter to the long aftermath of a 2008 immigration raid at a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa, a federal court in Cedar Rapids heard arguments on Wednesday over the sentencing of Sholom Rubashkin, the former chief executive.
Mr. Rubashkin was in charge of the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, when immigration agents landed in helicopters to detain nearly 400 illegal immigrant workers. In November, Mr. Rubashkin was convicted of 86 counts of federal bank fraud in connection with loans to the company.
Prosecutors, citing Mr. Rubashkin’s “blatant lawlessness, utter lack of remorse, his egregious and repeated attempts to obstruct justice,†have asked Judge Linda R. Reade to impose a life sentence.
The proposed sentence startled legal experts around the country. In a letter written to Judge Reade on Monday, six former attorneys general, one former solicitor general and more than a dozen former United States attorneys criticized “the government’s extreme sentencing position†and the “potentially severe injustice†that could result.
The former Justice Department officials questioned the interpretation by Stephanie M. Rose, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Iowa, of the federal criminal sentencing guidelines that would apply to Mr. Rubashkin’s white-collar crime.
“We cannot fathom how truly sound and sensible sentencing rules could call for a life sentence — or anything close to it — for Mr. Rubashkin, a 51-year-old, first-time, nonviolent offender,†they wrote. The letter is signed by Janet Reno, William Barr, Richard Thornburgh, Edwin Meese III, Ramsey Clark and Nicholas Katzenbach, all of whom served as attorney general.
The prosecutors’ proposal is consistent with tough criminal charges they pursued against immigrant workers and other managers at Agriprocessors, once the nation’s largest producer of kosher meat. Nearly 300 workers served federal prison sentences of five months for identity theft, and several human resources managers and floor supervisors were convicted of felony charges of harboring illegal immigrants.
The raid was one of the Bush administration’s most high-profile enforcement actions, and became an emblem of its strategy of using criminal charges in immigration cases. The Agriprocessors company collapsed, and the plant was shut, resulting in a loss of hundreds of jobs in Postville, a small-town outpost in Iowa for Orthodox Jews.
The Obama administration has not conducted conspicuous raids, with officials saying they wanted to avoid the severe economic impact and the breaking up of immigrant families that sometimes resulted.
After prosecutors won a decisive conviction in Mr. Rubashkin’s financial fraud trial, they dismissed all charges against him for employing illegal immigrants. Both government and defense documents depict Agriprocessors under Mr. Rubashkin as a chaotic enterprise continually teetering on the edge of financial failure, its accounts in disarray and Mr. Rubashkin taking bank loans to cover gaps and losses.
In court papers supporting the maximum sentence, prosecutors said Mr. Rubashkin used $300,000 in Agriprocessors’ funds to pay his credit card bills, $200,000 to remodel his Postville home and $25,000 for jewelry. Prosecutors argued that he “was living a rich lifestyle using Agriprocessors’ money.â€
They said Mr. Rubashkin had defrauded First Bank Business Capital, a St. Louis bank, by fabricating fake collateral for loans. He ordered employees to create false invoices and “directed millions of dollars to be laundered through a secret bank account†in the name of Torah Education, prosecutors said, causing more than $26 million in losses to the banks.
A defense lawyer, Guy Cook, said Mr. Rubashkin had been a poor manager who was overwhelmed by trying to sustain the business founded by his father, Aaron Rubashkin.
“His only intent was to keep the family kosher business in operation,†Mr. Cook said Tuesday. “There was never any intent to steal or cheat or rob anyone.â€
Orthodox Jewish leaders have led a campaign in support of Mr. Rubashkin, and more than 16,000 people signed a petition from a Jewish Web site to Judge Reade.
“People believe in him because the mission of Agriprocessors was to provide an important means for Jews to become closer to their connection to God,†defense lawyers wrote in court papers. Many Jews believe the charges against Mr. Rubashkin were “attacks on kosher slaughter,†they wrote.
Defense lawyers have asked Judge Reade to impose a six-year sentence. They said the sentence urged by prosecutors is greater than the punishment for Bernard Ebbers, the former chief executive of WorldCom, and Jeffrey K. Skilling, the former Enron chief executive.
Mr. Rubashkin’s trial on state charges for labor abuses, including hiring child labor, starts Tuesday. Some 10 immigrant workers have received temporary visas as witnesses to testify in those cases.
Federal prosecutors held 35 other immigrants in the United States as material witnesses for Mr. Rubashkin’s immigration trial. When the immigration charges were dismissed, the immigrants were ordered to leave the country by March 31.
Call the rabbi, this jew has been a bad boy.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/04/29/us/29postville_CA1/29postville_CA1-thumbStandard.jpg
OY!
Life Sentence Is Debated for Meat Plant Ex-Chief
By JULIA PRESTON
Published: April 28, 2010
In a final chapter to the long aftermath of a 2008 immigration raid at a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa, a federal court in Cedar Rapids heard arguments on Wednesday over the sentencing of Sholom Rubashkin, the former chief executive.
Mr. Rubashkin was in charge of the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, when immigration agents landed in helicopters to detain nearly 400 illegal immigrant workers. In November, Mr. Rubashkin was convicted of 86 counts of federal bank fraud in connection with loans to the company.
Prosecutors, citing Mr. Rubashkin’s “blatant lawlessness, utter lack of remorse, his egregious and repeated attempts to obstruct justice,†have asked Judge Linda R. Reade to impose a life sentence.
The proposed sentence startled legal experts around the country. In a letter written to Judge Reade on Monday, six former attorneys general, one former solicitor general and more than a dozen former United States attorneys criticized “the government’s extreme sentencing position†and the “potentially severe injustice†that could result.
The former Justice Department officials questioned the interpretation by Stephanie M. Rose, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Iowa, of the federal criminal sentencing guidelines that would apply to Mr. Rubashkin’s white-collar crime.
“We cannot fathom how truly sound and sensible sentencing rules could call for a life sentence — or anything close to it — for Mr. Rubashkin, a 51-year-old, first-time, nonviolent offender,†they wrote. The letter is signed by Janet Reno, William Barr, Richard Thornburgh, Edwin Meese III, Ramsey Clark and Nicholas Katzenbach, all of whom served as attorney general.
The prosecutors’ proposal is consistent with tough criminal charges they pursued against immigrant workers and other managers at Agriprocessors, once the nation’s largest producer of kosher meat. Nearly 300 workers served federal prison sentences of five months for identity theft, and several human resources managers and floor supervisors were convicted of felony charges of harboring illegal immigrants.
The raid was one of the Bush administration’s most high-profile enforcement actions, and became an emblem of its strategy of using criminal charges in immigration cases. The Agriprocessors company collapsed, and the plant was shut, resulting in a loss of hundreds of jobs in Postville, a small-town outpost in Iowa for Orthodox Jews.
The Obama administration has not conducted conspicuous raids, with officials saying they wanted to avoid the severe economic impact and the breaking up of immigrant families that sometimes resulted.
After prosecutors won a decisive conviction in Mr. Rubashkin’s financial fraud trial, they dismissed all charges against him for employing illegal immigrants. Both government and defense documents depict Agriprocessors under Mr. Rubashkin as a chaotic enterprise continually teetering on the edge of financial failure, its accounts in disarray and Mr. Rubashkin taking bank loans to cover gaps and losses.
In court papers supporting the maximum sentence, prosecutors said Mr. Rubashkin used $300,000 in Agriprocessors’ funds to pay his credit card bills, $200,000 to remodel his Postville home and $25,000 for jewelry. Prosecutors argued that he “was living a rich lifestyle using Agriprocessors’ money.â€
They said Mr. Rubashkin had defrauded First Bank Business Capital, a St. Louis bank, by fabricating fake collateral for loans. He ordered employees to create false invoices and “directed millions of dollars to be laundered through a secret bank account†in the name of Torah Education, prosecutors said, causing more than $26 million in losses to the banks.
A defense lawyer, Guy Cook, said Mr. Rubashkin had been a poor manager who was overwhelmed by trying to sustain the business founded by his father, Aaron Rubashkin.
“His only intent was to keep the family kosher business in operation,†Mr. Cook said Tuesday. “There was never any intent to steal or cheat or rob anyone.â€
Orthodox Jewish leaders have led a campaign in support of Mr. Rubashkin, and more than 16,000 people signed a petition from a Jewish Web site to Judge Reade.
“People believe in him because the mission of Agriprocessors was to provide an important means for Jews to become closer to their connection to God,†defense lawyers wrote in court papers. Many Jews believe the charges against Mr. Rubashkin were “attacks on kosher slaughter,†they wrote.
Defense lawyers have asked Judge Reade to impose a six-year sentence. They said the sentence urged by prosecutors is greater than the punishment for Bernard Ebbers, the former chief executive of WorldCom, and Jeffrey K. Skilling, the former Enron chief executive.
Mr. Rubashkin’s trial on state charges for labor abuses, including hiring child labor, starts Tuesday. Some 10 immigrant workers have received temporary visas as witnesses to testify in those cases.
Federal prosecutors held 35 other immigrants in the United States as material witnesses for Mr. Rubashkin’s immigration trial. When the immigration charges were dismissed, the immigrants were ordered to leave the country by March 31.