Ceder Rapids, IA – Prosecutors asked a federal judge on Thursday to sentence a former kosher slaughterhouse executive to 25 years in prison, less than the life sentence they have said they were entitled to request.
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Former Agriprocessors Inc. manager Sholom Rubashkin, who was convicted of 86 counts of financial fraud in November, gave a tearful, halting speech at the end of his sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids. He was charged following a May 2008 immigration raid at the former Agriprocessors slaughterhouse, where 389 workers were arrested on immigration charges.
Rubashkin told the court he had made mistakes and was remorseful. In a thick Brooklyn accent, he reiterated that he was sorry for his actions, and that he was put in a position by his family of running the operations of a large plant for which he had no training or interest.
“I’m basically a conflicted and flawed human being,” Rubashkin said. “Conflicted in that I allowed myself to be drafted into my family’s business against my wishes and better judgment.
“I basically should have stayed in teaching and being an emissary (for Lubavitcher Judaism.)”
Prosecutors had added up the charges in pre-sentencing documents and the total came to a life sentence. But assistant U.S. Attorney Pete Deegan said Thursday in court that the government would seek 25 years and not life, which is “usually reserved for violent criminals.”
“Here you have a defendant who had everything: family, love and support,” Deegan said. “And he’s asking for a lesser sentence because of it.”
Defense attorney Guy Cook, who had requested a six-year sentence, said the request for 25 years would essentially be a life sentence for the 50-year-old Rubashkin. Cook asked that he serve it at a facility in Otisville, N.Y., which better caters to the needs of Hasidic Jews.
“He only has about 25 or 26 years left on this earth,” Cook said. “Twenty-five years is a life sentence.”
U.S. District Court Judge Linda Reade says she’ll issue a ruling on May 27.
The possible life sentence enraged some in the Jewish community and surprised legal scholars. Six former U.S. attorneys general signed a letter sent to Reade that said that the possibility of life in prison was excessive for a nonviolent offender without a criminal record.
Deegan said there were many victims in the case: the banks who lost money to Rubashkin because of the fraud, the cattle sellers who had to take out loans to avoid closure, and the citizens of Postville, who watched their largest employer fall into bankruptcy and their town’s economy crumble.
Deegan said Rubashkin wasn’t some far-removed corporate officer who “sets (fraud) in motion,” but rather a hands-on executive who personally broke the law and directed others to do the same.
But Cook said he had gotten to know Rubashkin since he took on the case, and found him to be a deeply religious man who put the needs of others in front of his own.
“It was not a Ponzi scheme, it was not a Madoff scheme,” Cook said. “He made mistakes and he compounded those mistakes. And he felt trapped and didn’t know how to get out.”
Earlier on Thursday, Abe Roth, an accountant and longtime friend of Rubashkin, testified that prosecutors miscalculated the millions of dollars in losses suffered by Agriprocessors’ lender bank, First Bank Business Capital.
The amount of money lost by the bank is key because it could affect Rubashkin’s sentence. Roth countered prosecutors’ claims that the St. Louis-based bank lost $26 million because of Rubashkin’s fraud.
Roth said much of that loss had nothing to do with the fraud. He claimed the purported loss of $26 million doesn’t factor in the $4 million the bank made in interest from the loan, or how much of the loan came from fraudulently inflated invoices.
Prosecutors “made everyone believe that number of $26 million is God-given, and it isn’t,” Roth said.
Roth said only about $10 million was artificially inflated, and that the rest “was pristine, wasn’t influenced by any corrupted” accounts.
Rubashkin was convicted of creating phony invoices to show First Bank Business Capital that the slaughterhouse had more money flowing in than it did. After the Postville operation declared bankruptcy, the bank continued to pump cash into the plant to keep it running.
The cash infusions totaled about $5 million, but Roth said the bank is to blame because it failed to do due diligence on the company. Roth said the $5 million should not be factored into the bank’s loss and Rubashkin’s sentence.
“So your testimony is really that it’s the bank’s fault,” Deegan said while cross-examining Roth.
“It is their problem if they did not do proper due diligence,” Roth replied.
Nebach. Does life or 25 yrs make a difference at his age?
Hashem yerachem.
Guys u see! Our Tfilles help! Don’t give up! Keep Davening!
a good sign! “I’m mizerah ha’yehudim…” SMR is a great Jew! Just like Mordechai HaTzaddik of long ago, as his opposers have begun to back down, they will be forced to back down entirely!
Oy, Hashem!!
Raboisai our tefilos are working keep it up we still have some time thanks klal yisroale
In light of this development can ANYONE explain why the defense asked for 6 years and not 1? I remind you that with time served a sentence of 1 year would mean he’d be out or almost done with his sentence.
B”H. This is just the beginning of the yeshua. Let’s keep up our tefillos, so that he should have a complete and total yeshua.
everyone thats in meron for lag bamer pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee daven for him and the kosel etc
This is perhaps the first good news (aside when they dropped the immigration charges) Ive heard about this trial since the sad news broke. Prosecuters hate to admit when they are wrong – so something is happening for sure. Maybe no LH for a day?
This is the first step in the right direction hashem is showing us that by saying tehillim doing mitzvos and giving tzadakah l’zchus r’ sholom mordche ben rivkah haleivi he will listen to our prayers. YIDDEN dont stop continue your good deeds until he will be set free.
oh vay nabech 25 years is still 2 much nebech nebech.
Now the defense should use this opportunity to ask for 2 years total or time served.
Now just like the prosecutors reduced from life to 25 yes based on testimony of last few days the defense should say that based on the testimony from last few days we are reducing our recommendation of 6 yes to 1 year…. Please just do it!!!
If I was the judge I’d ask the prosecution to explain the rationale for originally asking for life and now only for 25 years. If he is the monster he was made out to be why ask for a reduced sentence and if on the other hand he’s not the monster they said he is why did they ask for life. I would not let the prosecution off the hook so easily. You can’t play with a man’s life so arbitrarily.
The fact is that the prosecutors now know that in view of their arrogance and the judges leaning toward them , the sentence they originally asked for and recommended by the judge would be overturned as anti-semitic as was a lot of their conduct was abhorable as Rubashkin was under duress when this occurred. Who else with non-legal workes was treated as such and convicted by the President of the United States pre=trial. Rubashkin should get 2-5 at most due to:
1. ist time offender
2. The money in the bankruptcy was prior to the alleged fraud on the application
3. The non-payment to vendors was a result of the immigration raid where most chges were
dropped even before the fraud chges were processed.
4. His constant incarceration during even trial was biased actions by the judge for no apparent
reason and the entire Jewish community was willing to post Torahs.
5.An entire town was ruined by the actions of the federal govt and the Rubashkins and hundreds ruined by this. Most of the illegals are allowed back into US due to the law.
6. Rubashkin has regrets and was clinically depressed as per psychiatrists examination
7. Certain facts of immigration case were interwined
No one wants to see their case reversed on appeal. By sticking to strict Federal guidelines, the Prosecution is reducing the risk of having the sentence overturned. The Judge will follow the same logic.
The prosecution probably realized that he did not defraud the bank out of the full 26M as the accountant testified. They should apply the interest payments as well.
Baruch Hashem Lets keep davening you never know!!!! Daven Daven Daven!!!
SMR was named after Mordechai Dubin, a Jew who saved the previos Rebbe from the Soviet goverment, but died himself in prison, I think SMR should add a new name (may be Chaim)?
3.There was enough inventory and assets in the company that the loan should have been able to have been paid off if the company and its assets were sold. But the bank (in its greed) refused to consider very serious offers to purchase the company. They insisted they only wanted 100% of the loan paid off and would not even consider any offer slightly below that. There is an affidavit from one individual who offered $21.5 million for the company in cash (and he was prepared to go higher), but the bank refused his initial offer, came back with no counter-offer and refused to negotiate further. There were other offers for $17 million and more. But the bank dismissed all the offers out of hand.
http://justiceforsholom.org/why-life-in-prison
Is there someone with legal knowledge here who knows what a 25 year sentence means in term of actual time served? 12 years? 17 years?
Does noone realize the diversion the prosecution employed by asking for life? They never expected him to get anything close! So while everyone wailed “how could they!!!” They rested assured knowing noone could anymore counter their true intention of 25 years which is equally devestating. Even 2 years is a knife in his heart
The reason the prosecution lowered the sentence, was do in part to his admission of guilt and remorse. Had he, done so at the beginning he would have probably gotten no more than six years…. Instead people decided to make this about jewish persecution…
The saddest part of this whole article is the following statement “Cook asked that he serve it at a facility in Otisville, N.Y., which better caters to the needs of Hasidic Jews.
The munkatcher rebbe flew to ohio and worked out a plea bargin for 6 years why do people think there smarter then the gedolim
Is he entitled to parole for good behavior?
Are you part of the prosecution or are you guessing?
we all have to daven for r shalom rubashkin and that hashem should send him a yeshuah bekarov and that he should only get single digit years
interesting. they have 86 counts against him. 86 is the shem elokim midas hadin. but now the bank claims the amount they lost was 26 mil. that’s shem havaya midas rachamim, now starts rachmim & he will be free bez”h
I don’t know hi but he has a צלם אלקים
I am so sure that he will end up good.
ה’ לא יעזוב אותי מעתה ועד עולם
I never heard from him but my soul is crying for him. I even told Hashem if you not going to answer our Tefilah we will not believe in Tefila any more, that night I had a nice dream, I heard somebody talking: “Its going to look at one point very bad and no more hope, but its going to turn over to the good side”, Amen.
“Deegan said there were many victims in the case: the banks who lost money to Rubashkin because of the fraud, the cattle sellers who had to take out loans to avoid closure, and the citizens of Postville, who watched their largest employer fall into bankruptcy and their town’s economy crumble.”
The fraud was not the problem here- Rubashkin was paying the bank nicely until the gov stepped in and took unprecedented action against the company. The gov. was supposed to realize whom they were going to hurt with their actions.Why doesn’t the defense talk about that?
I just don’t understand why they keep on going back and forth about the amount of money Rubashkin took out the loan for. It doesn’t matter. He intended to pay it all back and it was payable. HE WAS PAYING back the loan until he was forced into bankruptcy because of the government’s actions, the ICE raid and his subsequent jailing!
And Roth is right. After the company went bankrupt the bank should have not made the cash infusions. It was no secret that the company went bankrupt. The bank was spending the money at its own risk.
I think since Barack Hussain Obama spoke out against SMR on the campaign trail, which was very wrong since he was not convicted at the time, he now needs to make for it by giving him a full pardon. OK machers, you have your work cut out for you, get to work.
There are 20,000.000 Illegal immigrants in the U.S.
How come the Government is not looking for them.
20,000.000 is not 300 or 500, they should be easy to find, but the big business wants them! They don’t want to find them!
…and Rubashkin is a scapegoat!
…and yes, a lot of this stems from anti-semitism!!!!!!
He is not a murderer, Dope pusher, or any horrendeus things you read today in the papers.
He did make mistakes.
Maybe he is not lily-white, but hey……he did not hurt anybody.
He gave work to a lot of people, who were grateful for this.
Lets face facts.!!!!!!
It is often because we are Jews, that we are blamed,
Meshiach has to come ASAP!
מצאתי בכתי”ק סגולה נפלאה, ובדוק ומנוסה, “קח עשרה אנשים כל אחד ילך אל המקוה, ולא ידבר שום דבר אחר כך, וילך אל האיש אשר נגזר עליו איזה גזירה רע רח”ל וכל אחד יקח את ידו של חבירו עד שנעשה עיגול והנפש אשר צריך הישועה יעמוד באמצע, ועשרה אנשים האלו יסבב את האיש המצפה לישועה ויעשה כך כו פעמים ובכל פעם יאמר מזמור שיר למעלות אשא עיני אל ההרים ביחד, ופעם הכ”ו יעשה בריקוד, ואני מכיר איש אחד שעשה זאת בשתיקה כדי לפקוד בזרע של קיימא אחר שעבר הרבה טיפולים, ובשנה הבא באותו היום נולד לו בן למזל טוב יותר מעשר שנים אחר החתונה, ויהי רצון שכל אחד יפקוד בכל טוב סלה
When the government and FBI messed with Wako TX they paid a big price for it. it seems they have not learnt there lesson!
Reb Rubashkin had horrible, incompetent legal representation, and that might be grounds for an eventual appeal. One smart thing he did during his statement was not to be arrogant and blaming everyone under the sun for the position he finds himself in, but basically he threw himself on the mercy of the court. May Hashem soften the hearts of stone of the prosecutors and judge.
I strongly suspect that Mr. Rusashkin is being treated so harshly by federal prosecutors because of his persona ( a clearly devout, observant Jew), an incorrect and badly mistaken idea (among certain of these prosecutors) that observant Jews are less than ethical and need punishment to deter then from illegal activities and because of a suspicion (and never brought to trial and never proven accusation) that he knowingly and intentionally hired and mistreated illegal immigrants. (In many areas there is an open hostility to illegal immigrants). I have serious concern about how the federal sentencing guidelines are being applied in this case. A twenty-five year senrence in a white-collar crime case is overly harsh, amounts to cruel punishment and also amounts to a nearly certain life sentence for a fifty-one year old man. Mr. Rubashkin is a non-violent person, with no previous criminal record and no evidence of personal gain from his crime. We must object and do all we can, on many fronts, and not allow the over-reaching demands of federal prosecutors to prevail.
A segula that works(I tryed it) when you go to court you say “amtaliy bat karnavo” 17 x -that’s the name of the mother of Abraham aveinu. I don’t know why it works but it does.
wrong wrong wrong we can, and must challenge the aibishter,just as Avraham avinu did by sedom, moshe Rabenu told the aibishter to leave his name out of parsha, and the three rabonim that talk the aibishter to a din torah in the camps or ghetto they found in favor the people (the Yidden) and the suffering has to stop…….then they said lets daven maariv and they said kaddish.
we klal yisroel have continue to band together like we are now, and demand from the aisbishter that Sholom Mordechai Halevi ben Rivka should see yeshos Hashem keheref ayin, and the aibishter should soften the heart of the judge,AD MOSAI AD MOSAI AD MOSAI
moshiach NOW!!!!!!
While rubashkin must show remorce, we must show outrage.
Many corperations declare bankrupcy which causes million dollar losses like Enron. They are not prosequted as murderers. Banks made millions of loans with hyped up collateral homes or buisnesses. This bank was offered 21 million and said no. They made 4 million on the payments of this loan.
Public officials were in with the unions to blackmale Rubashkins or they would make their life misrable. Well they did. Congradulations to all the jewhunters. Your putting away the most selfless charitable person to build your reputations. Shame on you.
It would be nice to hear that the new frum owner of Agri has pledged to help with the legal costs and families needs. After all he did pick up the plant that SMR built, at a bargain. I wish him well and to make a lot of parnassa. Kepp in mind that SMR did not live the high life. He built the plant to provide all of us with affordable quality kosher meat.
i can see the Gzeira lifting!
its time to thank Hashem & Rejoice for the inevitable Good we know will surely result
Hashem never writes anyone off
Tshuva & Charata = Breaking the Heaveny decry
“Barcheinu avinu kulonu k’echod”
Cw dwek gets scot free so far an he stole 400 mill. And stole 25mill from a bank were is justice?
The mid boggles! ‘Deegan said there were many victims in the case:
the banks who lost money to Rubashkin because of the fraud,
the cattle sellers who had to take out loans to avoid closure,
the citizens of Postville, who watched their largest employer fall into bankruptcy and their town’s economy crumble.’
Why did the banks lose money? – SMR was forced into bankruptcy.
Why did the cattle sellers have to take out loans? – SMR was forced into bankruptcy.
Why did the town’s economy crumble? – SMR was forced into bankruptcy.
Quite apart from the harassment by PETA, as I recall, reports at the time told of a local priest who tried to use his parishioners’ illegal status against SMR. The moron didn’t realise that he was depriving them of the only employment opportunity they had.
And Deegan sanctimoniously weeps for them?
If the raid of the gvmt on the illegal immigrants forced him into bankruptcy the now that he’s cleared of this charges why shouldn’t he sue the gvmnt 100 million dollars
‘How more obvious could it be’ – to even say 25 years, is an outright miscarriage of justice. This man has no prior record, has an outstanding reputation and all because of mistakes, where others have either not gone to jail at all or just , at the most, for a couple of years. Murderers, today, sadly, do not get 25 years. After 10 years, they’re out of jail. This is definitely where the punishment does not fit the crime. Maybe if there was more of an outcry from our people, it would have never come to such a point and to read many of the negative comments on so many of these news items in regard to this case is unforgiveable from frumme yidden. Hopefully, he will be sentenced to just a couple of years, at most. We must all continue to say Tehillim for him, as this is a Jewish obligation. Hashem y’rachem!
The prosecution states that the banks who lost money because of the Rubashkin “fraud” are victims. Does this mean that everyone who took out a “stated income” loan during the housing bubble and later defaulted should serve jail time. Approximately 40% of the all mortgage loans issued during the time period 2004-2007 were “stated income” loans otherwise referred to as “liar loans.” These loan defaults caused economic damage to the entire world, not just one town in Iowa. I guess the feds better start building jails to house these 10’s of Millions of people who defrauded the banks.
a) Rubashkin admitted to his psychiatrist that defrauded the bank and the psychiatrist reported that conversation to the court under cross examination by the prosecutor. So he is guilty of perjury.
b) He admitted he knowingly hired undocumented workers.
c) SMR has refused to cooperate with the government in their search for financial assets that could be used to pay victims of his crimes.
d) Part of almost any plea deal is an agreement to turn state witness against others who committed related crimes. SMR would not do so since it would implicate his father, brothers, sister, and other extended family members.
Therefore,I am afraid SMR will get a lengthy sentence about which I am not happy. But he has followed bad legal advice. He is his own worse enemy.
BTW, the trial on state child labor law violations begins this coming Tuesday. It is the only time Aron, Heshy and Shalom will face justice together. It will be interesting to see what happens there.
For those have drunk the kool-aid and think this affair is about anti-Semitism, anti-shechita, anti-haredi — I suggest you get a fresh bottle of clean, clear water. This whole distasteful episode is a chilul Hasehem about greed.
85,
Tks for making those points.
The funny thing is, that on one hand, people were offended at the joke which was made by the Ntional Security advisor to the point where he had to apologize.
On the other hand, when Jews are arrested for Fraud,we wriggle our way out of it by yelling ‘anti semitism’
How do you square one situation with the other??
what a stupid defense by Abe Roth – the fact that the bank failed to do their due diligence is not a defense. The prosecution is saying that he defrauded the bank shareholders anddoes not care if the CEO participated if the fraud too. – i still think the prosecution is full of anti semitism but Roth’s defens emakes no sense!!
the prosecuters pulled a quick one the defense, they sent out a press release that they will be asking the judge for a life sentence, then when they came to the actual sentencing hearing they requested 25 years which made the sentence request look linient to the judge. They never intende more than 25 years, but were playing with the defense attorneys