Government Laying Groundwork For Indictment Of Rubashkin, Senior Managers, Legal Experts Claim

Surprised by the breadth of the affidavits used in the raid against the Rubashkin family's Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa early this week, legal experts believe…

…the US Government is preparing to indict senior plant managers and members of the Rubashkin family.

The Jewish Week reports:

Widespread Worker Abuses Alleged At AgriProcessors
Federal affadavit could open door to indictment against top kosher meat supplier.
by Debra Nussbaum Cohen
Staff Writer

Two legal experts suggested this week that the federal government could be laying the groundwork for possible indictments against the owners of the country’s largest kosher meat manufacturer.

The comments come in the wake of Monday’s raid on AgriProcessors’ slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, when federal authorities entered the plant and arrested 390 workers — more than a third of the company’s workforce — on illegal immigration charges. On Tuesday, 29 workers were charged with crimes including identity theft and using false social security numbers, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office.

“It’s clear [from the affadavit’s allegations] that the government is thinking of an up-the-ladder chain of getting either the whole corporation or some senior managers,” said Marc Stern, general counsel to the American Jewish Congress, who reviewed the affadavit. “There are clearly some supervisors who are at great risk with being charged with harboring aliens in systematic fashion. There’s also a tantalizing thing in there about different-colored paychecks that suggests a slush fund for paying illegals.”

“Whoever from the corporation is involved with that is at great risk,” Stern continued. “They [the government] lay the groundwork for such a charge. But whether they can prove it beyond a supervisory level or will even attempt it is too early to say.”

The affidavit filed by a senior special agent of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement department lists dozens of pages of allegations against the company’s owners and supervisors. The document portrays them as exploiters of a vulnerable illegal immigrant work force, and it could be seen as setting the owners and supervisors up for possible indictment.

Allegations include that company owners and supervisors physically abused and exploited workers; knowingly hired workers without legal documentation; altered work records; paid some off the books; and paid them below minimum wage (starting workers at $5 an hour).

In addition, the affadavit alleges that company owners and supervisors fraudulently and forcibly sold them used cars and trucks, threatening that they would be fired if they didn’t buy the vehicles.

“Our company takes the immigration laws seriously,” AgriProcessors said in a statement, adding that it cooperated with the government “in the enforcement action” and will continue to operate during the investigation. It also assured consumers that it is continuing to supply glatt kosher meats and poultry.

AgriProcessors produces about 60 percent of the kosher meat and 40 percent of the kosher poultry in the U.S market.

Washington attorney Nathan Lewin, who has represented AgriProcessors and its owners, the Rubashkin family, in the past, conveyed surprise this week at the breadth of the affadavit’s allegations.

The “fact is there was a lot of material in there that did not seem to be relevant [to the immigration charges]. It has all sorts of allegations [against the owners and supervisors], all sorts of information gleaned from all sorts of places,” he said.

“Whether or not charges are brought against the Rubashkins, that remains to be seen,” Lewin said. He said he does not yet know if he is representing AgriProcessors in this current matter.

He added that he did not believe the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Rubashkins were in talks at the present time.

The affidavit also alleges that an informant saw evidence of methamphetamines being manufactured at the plant.

In the wake of Monday’s raid, the country’s leading kosher supervising agency, the Orthodox Union, expressed concern about the situation.

“The different issues, like immigration, we don’t have expertise or authority in that area but will follow the authorities’ lead,” said Rabbi Menachem Genack, the OU’s kashrut administrator. The OU is one of the two current kosher certifiers of AgriProcessors products, and the most widely accepted.

“We’ll see where this leads in terms of determinations the government makes,” Rabbi Genack said. “If they find that the company is culpable we will respond. In terms of some of the claims, like drug use, they [the Rubashkins’] say that it’s not true, but I will wait to see what the determination is. If workers there make drugs, whatever it is, and without sanction of management, then it wouldn’t affect us. But if it was with the knowledge of the company then it would affect us,” he said.

If the government concludes that the company’s owners were culpable, “It certainly would be something we would be concerned about,” he said.

The federal investigation dates back to last November, and involved sending in undercover workers who recorded conversations about buying false employment documents.

Beyond the challenge of finding new (and legal) workers to replace those arrested this week, the incident and other related investigations could mean major problems for AgriProcessors’ owners, Brooklyn-based Aaron Rubashkin and his son, Rabbi Sholom Rubashkin, who runs the Iowa plant.

Officials at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement department and the U.S. Attorney’s office said that they could make no comment as to whether the Rubashkins will be charged.

Sholom Rubashkin did not return a message left on his cell phone.

At the same time, the U.S Department of Labor and Iowa Department of Labor are investigating AgriProcessors practices. In March, the Iowa Division of Labor Services levied $182,000 in fines against AgriProcessors for 39 health and safety violations.…

Could the Rubashkin family be going down?

It's too early to say for sure, but it sure looks possible.

Special kudos should go to Debra Nussbaum Cohen of the Jewish Week for having the sense (sense that I certainly lacked) to show the affidavits to Stern and Lewin.

[Hat Tip: Seymour.]

PDF Archive Rubashkin Raid NYJW 5-14-08

Comments

[yidandahalf]

Rubash-in will sell out to Alle. Kiryas Joel will run Postville.

[Sarah]

Anyone know how to update or add to Wikipedia? I'm not too good at this sort of thing but it should be made more accurate. Please see the last sentence, but warning: you may puke.

Moshe Rubashkin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Moshe Rubashkin (born 1958 ) the head of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council . He was elected to a three-year term in 2005 to serve as the head of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council , a public organisation that among other activities receives $2 million per annum in state funding. ' Moshe Rubashkin'' is known as a person with a bigger heart than his wallet.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_Rubashkin
· Cached page

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

…the US Government is preparing to indict senior plant managers and members of the Rubashkin family

Rikes! It sounds like some people will have to think about stocking up on Soap-On-A-Rope.

[John K. Diamond]

HaShem willing, this will result in ALL Rubashkin animal "Horror Houses" to be shut down permanently.

The sooner, the better

[steve]

Just shut them down permanently and make sure they do not get into the meat business again. Any kind of meat business.

[one of many]

I agree with John and Steve.
enough embarrasment already!!!
is there no shame?

[Rina Deych]

I hope this represents the beginning of the end of Rubashkin's torture chambers.

[one of many]

Yes Rina, Yes!!

[Isa]

It might not be all that hard to move up the 'food chain' (excuse the pun)to prove charges.
Tell some supervisors how many years they will be in prison and how they MIGHT get a 'get out of jail' card by being a government witness.
A lot of this could be forgiven if they treated their workers right except their Hispanic workers were treated as 'sub humans'

[nachos]

Were the drugs kosher?

[uncle joe mccarthy]

i just hope they arent being made an example of...the hiring of illegals is rampant in the meat packing industry

saying that...i hope they rot in prison

[ben chosen/g-dfather]

The information I have, (from a Postville Jewish resident) is that the main investigation is about “identity theft” and not about immigration, locals were using false identities to gain jobs at the Postville plant.

The immigration was only brought in because many of those using false identities are illegal immigrants.

There were two Isreali Chabad Chassidm arrested for lacking proper visas but one was about already released and the hearing for the second is Thursday morning.

They do not believe that charges will be brought against management. There is no legal evidence that the management know about the identify theft.

The plant has over eleven hundred workers. Although losing three hundred is a major problem, the main part of the plant and most of the meat processing is going on as normal.

Many of the office staff have volunteered time to help with the manual labor, so thing will function normally.

I personally have no but that is what I’ve been told

[Shmarya]

I would say your friend hasn't read the affidavits. I'd also say your friend is very ignorant of US law.

[mordecai]

I have been a criminal defense attorney for many years. Criminals fall into categories.

1. Decent folks who make mistakes of judgment.

2. Decent folks who allow a flaw in their character (lust, greed, etc.) to overcome an otherwise praiseworthy life.

3. Folks whose dire life's circumstances cause them to commit an illegal act.

4.Drug addicts whose bodies are ravaged by drugs resulting in commission of crime

I have always been able to find at least some degree of compassion for these types.

But then there is a category that is so despicable and depraved that only the deepest prayer and exhortation to G-D can locate a vestige of compassion.

This group is:

5. the irremediable criminal mind that coldly and analytically conspires to evade law, to defy social norms, to do so devoid of conscience or concern for those harmed. This type has been defined as "sociopaths."

These types often need not commit crimes. They may be wealthy and otherwise successful. Yet, the desire to live outside the confines of society's law is so strong as to overwhelm any desire to act prudently.

The larger the entity they can outwit and defraud the greater their sense of accomplishment. They are far above, in their self-judgment-- the mean man and woman. They are supermen who believe it a birthright to lord it over the rest of us.

Laws are meant to be broken, taxes meant to be unpaid, people are meant to be exloited.

This is a sickening lot of criminals. They are people I have always despised.

[John K. Diamomd]

Mordechai,

Category 5 is a perfect description of the Rubashkins.

Right on !!!!!!

[PITA]

Well, I finally figured out one redeeming quality og this blog: In the unlikely event that small town finds itself without the usual contingent of home-grown fahrbissiner yiddisher antisimitten, shtot meshugoyim and drai kop nisht-fahrginners the townsfolk only have to look in one place to fill all the vacancies.

[Yochanan Lavie]

The nevi'im were the original "farbissener yidden" (not that anyone is on their madraga anymore).

Your sick.

Twisted.

Demented.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Guilty, guilty, and guilty! But at least I can distinguish between "your" and "you're". Can you do: there, their and they're?

[Yochanan Lavie]

Just so there is no misunderstanding: the nevi'im were looked upon as angry cranks back in the day. People who uncover abuse today are not on the level of nevi'im, but they perform a valuable service in the prophetic tradition. (I don't care what agenda they may or may not have; sunlight is the best disinfectant.) For their pains, whistleblowers are labeled as farbissener cranks.

People reacted that way with Boruch Lanner, and it turned out to be true, for example.

[PITA]

Sorry about the your/you're error. I'd attempt the dislexia defense but I can't spell that either.

OK, so let me give your challange a try:

Insane asylums are useful places serving the needs of bloggers and other sociopaths. One can tell which inmates have been cured because they are the ones who are aware that they're there to find their lost minds.

[PITA]

You aren't really expecting a response to the foolish notion that you and Yechezkel HaNavi are on the same team, are you?

Regarding Lanner I have long believed that the person behind the desk at which the NCSY buck stopped at the time of the Lanner abuses, as well as a certain rabbinical figure associated in popular perception with a certain institution of Jewish and Secular studies located in the northeast corner of a certain water-encircled boro of New York City (I don't want to publicly identify him, you understand) should have been boarding with fellow by the names of Bubba and Tiny in the cells adjoining to Baruch Lanner's.

What this has to do with you dreaming of yourself as a latter-day prophet, calling out in the digital wilderness escapes me though.

[yidandahalf]

You shmuck, YL in no way dreams of himself as a latter-day prophet. I do. I am the only prophet on this blog. If you read here you would know this by now.