Rubashkin Naive "Kid" From Brooklyn, Defense Claims

Rubashkin had no business experience when he took over from his father and a former plant manager who died shortly before Sholom Rubashkin's "arrival in the late 1990s," his attorney said.

No – at least with regard to the date of Rubashkin's arrival in Postville.

Sholom Rubashkin came to the Midwest to run Agriprocessors in 1987. He and his wife and children lived in Saint Paul, Minnesota less than two miles from my house. We belonged to the same small synagogue and knew each other.

Sholom spent most of the week in Postville, returning to Saint Paul Friday afternoons. His children attended the local Saint Paul Chabad day school.

The schochtim and mashgichim (plant rabbis) mostly did the same thing, although some spent their weekends in New York City and others in Minneapolis or Chicago.

I lived in Israel from September of 1993 to early July 1995. During this time, Sholom and his family moved to Postville.

In other words, Guy Cook, Sholom Rubashkin's attorney, misled the court, either because he chose to do so or because his client misled him.

Either way, if the AP's rendition is accurate, Sholom Rubashkin would appear to be desperately grasping at straws:

Attorneys offer 2 views of slaughterhouse manager

By NIGEL DUARA • AP

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Prosecutors portrayed a former kosher slaughterhouse manager as a schemer who funneled money through a school and grocery to avoid loan payments, while a defense attorney said he was simply involved with financial transactions he didn't understand.

The conflicting portraits emerged Wednesday during opening statements in the man's federal trial on financial fraud charges.

Sholom Rubashkin, the former manager at an Agriprocessors, Inc., plant in northeast Iowa, faces 91 financial charges, including bank fraud, mail and wire fraud and money laundering. He was arrested months after federal agents raided the plant in May 2008, arresting 389 illegal immigrants.

Assistant U.S. Attorney C.J. Williams said Rubashkin paid some top human resources and accounting employees at the Postville, Iowa, plant more than three times their salaries off the books to conceal alleged fraud.

"The defendant was expanding the plant beyond the pace he was able to," Williams said. "Evidence will show you that he was in charge of the day-to-day operation of the Agriprocessors plant on the ground there in Postville for years."

Defense attorney Guy Cook said Rubashkin was "a kid from Brooklyn" with no business experience when he took over the plant's operations from his father and a former plant manager who died shortly before his arrival in the late 1990s.

The company had taken out a $28 million revolving loan with St. Louis-based First Bank Business Capital in 1998. The loan grew to $35 million, and the company could borrow against it daily. After the immigration raid, Agriprocessors faltered financially, and the bank called the loan. The company declared bankruptcy in November.

Cook acknowledged illegal immigrants worked in the plant, but said it wasn't Rubashkin's fault and the alleged bank fraud was instead the result of a risky loan that went bad. Many of First Bank's loans have defaulted in the past couple of years, he said.

Rubashkin and his father were "in over their heads" in a fragile business, Cook said.

"Any inappropriate, sloppy or unethical business practices don't equal a crime," he said.

Cook also disputed prosecutors' assertion that Rubashkin laundered the money through a school and kosher grocery store, saying each was part of the Orthodox Jewish "religious infrastructure" in Postville.

"The money went in a circle, not in a straight line," Cook said. "There was never any laundering because the money wasn't dirty."

Wednesday afternoon, prosecutors called three witnesses who testified that about $10 million in invoices were not connected to any shipments made from the plant. Former Agriprocessors human resources employee Darlis Hendry said Rubashkin ordered her to create invoices of more than $25,000 for "outside products," and after the immigration raid, he began ordering invoices created multiple times a day.

Rubashkin's trial was moved from Iowa to South Dakota because of pretrial publicity.

Comments

[krewz]

wouldn't you consider September of 1993 to early July 1995 to be an "arrival in the late 1990s"??

did Sholom get adequate "business experience" from working those years up until the "former plant manager died "??

I think its fair to say that this man was uneducated from the get-go.

[FirstGenerationBavarianAmerican]

As the judge said in a recent case that I was a juror on, "What the lawyers say is not evidence."

[krewz]

dont jump the gun,

the lawyers got a good point!

[formerpostvillian]

Anyone know who the "former plant manager who died" is? Is this true?

[What a bunch of crap!]

Donald Hunt.... He died in 2003 or 2004. He had a stroke at his desk, in the plant, at work. Many secrets died with him.

[Hometown Postville]

If SMR was too naive to perpetrate these crimes then who showed him how to do it??

[What a bunch of crap!]

I hope you are being funny! He knew exactly what he was doing. Now he is just hiding behind his religion.

[AGRI-vated Angel]

Good grief!

He is not a child. He is a fifty+ year old man.

I have to have faith in the court. Playing the 'dumb blonde' will not work as a means-to prove his case. - Ignorance is not an excuse.

[state of disgust]

If SMR didn't know how to run the business he had the money and the smarts to hire someone who did.
SMR, Aron and Heshy didn't do that, because they felt they had complete control over the operation - from production, to slaughter, to sales to the consumer. According to people I've spoken with close to the family, all major business decisions (including the diversion of money to the school and KGS) would have been made by the three of them together. They knew exactly what they were doing. The fact that it was illegal probably never occurred to them but ignorance of the law is no excuse.
My guess is that SMR refused a plea deal because it would have involved him linking papa and bro to the fraud.

[AGRI-vated Angel]

. . . and his (SMR) alleged unawareness/confusion with regard to what transpired is most obvious; however ambivalence is equally inexcusable.

[effie]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, nothing is his fault. No one in North Dakota is going to be so gullible to believe that he didn't know exactly what he was doing and that it was illegal.

And according to one of his cronies, Rabbi Shea Hecht, he rejected the plea bargain because he didn't want to do the prison time they were asking for. So, let's stop pretending that his concern is anything but for himself.

[formerpostvillian]

"no business experience when he took over the plant's operations from his father and a former plant manager who died shortly before his arrival in the late 1990s."
The reason I asked who the plant manager was, was simply to verify we are talking about Don Hunt.
I moved to Postville in 2002 and Don Hunt was very much alive working as the plant manager for Sholom. I don't recall the year Don passed away, but it was not in the late 1990's before Sholom arrived!
Infact at Don's funeral Sholom spoke regarding their heated discussions and how Don did not hold back in his disagreements with how Sholom ran the business.

[steve]

I was also a naive kid from Brooklyn when I took over my father's business. Yet, I understood right from wrong and that if you break the law, you go to jail. Very strange line of defense, indeed. Also, is the lawyer implying that Brooklynites tend to be more naive and stupid than the average American? I am offended!

[effie]

June 28, 2003
Section: Obituary

POSTVILLE, Iowa - Donald S. Hunt, 62, of Postville, died Friday morning, June 27, 2003, at Mayo Medical Center, Rochester, Minn., following a brief illness.

Memorial services will be from 3 to 7 p.m. Monday at Schutte Funeral Home, Postville. Burial will be at a later date.

[krewz]

ok, so it seems that Shalom didn't start learning the business until June 28 2003!

Up until that point Don Hunt was the plant manager!

Sholom was never educated in the business field.

[state of disgust]

Shalom went to the Nevel School of Business run by his father. Everything he knows he learned from Papa - and that explains a lot.

[omg]

Shrewd from the start--what a line his lawyer is casting. I hope that justice pervails and that the judge sees through this imbecilic fabrication that is being spun.

[seymour]

if he succeds with that excuse it will be party time for me i can do many things my evil mind have come up with.

and when I get caught, poor me I went to yeshiva

[nachos]

Don Hunt was a good guy. He ran a tight ship. Don was honest and you could always trust him. He always would make time if somebody wanted to speak to him.

[effie]

Sholom was never educated in the business field.Posted by: krewz

I'm not educated in cardiac surgery. However, if I decide to perform a triple bypass on you, I don't think it will hold up as a defense in court when I'm charged with your murder.

[Victoria Baca]

It was a company town. I lived there for 5+ years and am bilingual. Off the topic, but shows the depth of the corruption. If you needed a job on the chicken side, Hosam would ask for $500. Or he'd ask for $300 so that you wouldn't 'lose your job'. Hosam got his hands slapped by EEOC, so he started selling cars. You need a job? Buy a car from me and I'll get you a job. Sholom knew about this - he just preferred to look the other way. And hey, if Mitch Meltzer and Toby Bensassoon have already pleaded guilty to falsifying bank statements, isn't it obvious that SMR's paws are just as grimy?

[Hometown Postville]

Victoria- have any of your coworkers who experienced these disgusting acts of taking advantage been called as witnesses? Is Hosam up on charges?