Exclusive: Agriprocessors Paid Almost $18 Million To Chabad Organizations While Insolvent

These are funds transfers and payments that Agriprocessors bankruptcy trustees say provided the company with no tangible benefit. These could be – and in many cases most likely are – attempts by Sholom Rubashkin and his family to loot Agriprocessors and launder money.

 

These are all PDF files. Four of the organizations – Pinchos Hasofer, TFLM, Congregation Nier Baruch and Gmach Schmeidos  – may not be Chabad. Margareten's yeshiva definately is not Chabad and the payments made to it may have been for kosher supervision fees because Margareten was a kosher supervision mark on some Agriprocessors product. Bet Kahila is a nonexistent congregation headed by Chabad Rabbi Asher Zeilingold, who is the Rabbi of Adath Israel in St. Paul, Minnesota and the head of United Mehadrin Kosher:

Download Agriprocessors Torah Education Program Of Northeast Iowa

Download Agriprocessors Bet Kahila

Download Agriprocessors Chabad-Lubavitch of Greater Mercer County

Download Agriprocessors Congregation Keren Razag Yosef Sternberg

Download Agriprocessors Keren Yisroel Aryeh Leib

Download Agriprocessors Yeshiva and Mesivata Maharyats Margareten

Download Agriprocessors Nier Baruch

Download Agriprocessors TFLM Realty AKA Tzedaka of Tefillah L'Moshe

Download Agriprocessors Machon Alte

Download Agriprocessors Chabad of Brandon

Download Agriprocessors Pinchos Hasofer

Download Agriprocessors Gemach Mamosh Now

Download Agriprocessors Chabad of Anne Arundel

Download Agriprocessors Chabad of North Fulton

Download Agriprocessors Chabad of Ithica

Download Agriprocessors Beth Rivka Schools For Girls

Download Agriprocessors Chabad Rochester MN

Download Agriprocessors Chabad of Colonie

Download Agriprocessors Gmach Schmeidos

Comments

[MarkfromShortHills]

Once again, Jewish "charities" in the headlines. In New Jersey, there is a growing association of "Jewish charitable organization" with "tax fraud".

[yidandahalf]

OT but related to Agri:
Bills that would criminalize filming in facory farms (such as the videos which doomed Agri) have died in Minnesota and Florida having been likewize defeated in NY and Iowa.

[WoolSilkCotton]

++yidandahalf | July 01, 2011 at 06:24 AM++

Great news! Thanks for the update.

[sage]

Just more ammunition to justify RICO Indictments against the RCF, the OU, KAJ, R. Weissmandl, etc.

[Jewish Prince]

must be Nusach Ari.

[anuran]

Y*1.5, Wonderful news!

[Isa]

Just wait till the Feds extradite that Israeli Arab from Israel [Amara?]
He will become a very good 'tweety bird', ol Rubi will get another 30 years

[jewishwhistleblower]

Chabad of Colonie Inc. listed above is run by Rubashkin's son-in-law convicted
pedophile Rabbi Yaakov Weiss and is located at his home address, the same address listed for his probation.

Pedophile Weiss promoted "The Committee of Concerned Anash for Pidyon Shevuyim" that was set up to help Shlomo Rubashkin and is involved with smear campaign tactics against the government attorneys who successfully prosecuted Rubashkin. Here is an example of such tactics originating from convicted pedophile Rabbi Yaakov Weiss. Weiss wrote a false letter to the Judicial Committee in Iowa.

It appears from an Iowa Judicial Watch website (http://www.iowajudicialwatch.org/)that obtained correspondence from the Supreme Court of Iowa nomination committee that convicted pedophile and Rubashkin son-in-law Rabbi Yaakov Weiss emailed the Supreme Court of Iowa nomination committee a few months back (http://www.iowajudicialwatch.org/2011/the-popularity-contest/). In that correspondence it appears that pedophile Weiss claims he is a Postville resident. I have confirmed the email address to belong to Weiss (http://who.godaddy.com/whoischeck.aspx?Domain=JEWISHCOLONIE.COM). Perhaps someone should mention this to Weiss' probation officer. Click on Letters for candidates with last names beginning with the letter “d.” at (http://www.iowajudicialwatch.org/2011/the-popularity-contest/) or the following links:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/47685224

Or

http://www.scribd.com/doc/47685224/d-letters

Or

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:kJu20ultEVcJ:www.scribd.com/doc/47685224/d-letters+yaakov973&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com

A copy of the letter in question:
[Begin Letter]
Yaakov973@aol.com
01/11/2011 11:46 PM
To SupCtNom@iowacourts.gov
cc
Subject Matt Dummermath
I am a resident of Postville.
I cannot think of a candidate more unfit for the prestigious position of Supreme Court judge than Matt Dummermath. He destroyed our town and our region. His reputation has proven that he is out to prosecute, not seek justice.
Moreover, it has now come out that Matt was involved in misconduct: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100924/NEWS01/9240356/-1/NETWORKING/Misconduct-cases-taint-justice-in-Iowa
Based on this I believe it would be a big mistake and stain to choose Mr. Dummermath as a nominee for this high position.
I do think, however, that Judge Callahan is a very fair judge.
Thank you.
Yaakov
Postville, IA
[End Letter]

[Joonarchist]

What’s the problem with tax fraud? Your only stealing back from a bigger crook.

[jewishwhistleblower]

Further another email was sent by an Ari Chitrik to the Judicial committee about 9 hours later using the similar language of "stain" and the identical subject line. This letter is found on the page after Weiss' letter:
[Begin Letter]
"Ari Chitrik"
01/11/2011 11:46 PM
To
cc
Subject Matt Dummermath
Electing Matt Dummermath will be a stain on the Iowa courts.
[End Letter]

Rabbi Yaakov Weiss and Ari Chitrik were or are both members of the "The Committee of Concerned Anash for Pidyon Shevuyim".
See:
http://chabad.info/index.php?url=article_en&id=13459%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3Eon%20the%20bottom%20of%20the%20article%20they%20wrote%20Article%20courtesy%20of%20www.collive.com%3Cbr%20/%3E
http://www.collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=1428&alias=committee-for-rubashkin-case

Although pedophile Weiss is no longer shown as a member of the committee it appears from the above that as of the beginning of the year he may still have been directing the efforts of this committee and its efforts. The committee was set up for the purposes of assisting Weiss' father-in-law Sholom Rubashkin:
http://www.collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=7754&alias=rubashkin-needs-your-letter
http://www.ncfje.org/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/1144649/jewish/The-Rubashkin-Case.htm

Who is Ari Chitrik?

See: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Ari+Chitrik%22&sa=N&tbs=nws:1,ar:1

In particular:

March 8, 2006: Anthony Duncan, 47, was killed when a garage wall collapsed at 733 Ocean Parkway in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Architect Robert Scarano, cited for violations throughout Brooklyn, had signed papers taking responsibility for the shoring-up. Owner Viera Novak and developer Ari Chitrik of O.P. Equities were cited for, among other things, failing to safeguard the public and the property.

[Moshe in Israel]

Very scary stuff.

Now that the full truth is coming out, that he was outright guilty of money laundering and fraud, where will his 'friends' be? Will they continue to support him? Or will they hide for fear of being the next to be indicted?

All of the supporters of SR are standing on the principle of being Dan LeKaf Zechus. Blaming it on a witch hunt by the US Government.

When in the end, it will be shown that he ran his business with malicious intent to defraud.

As one can see millions of $$'s were being spread around to buy the friendship of all those who were recipients.

As we follow the money trail, deeper and deeper, we'll see just how involved Pinny Lipshitz is in all of this. Since he was the MAIN driver around the the push to prove SR's innocence.

The world is truly built on Kesef, Kesef, and Kesef, and not Torah, Avodah, and G'milut Chasadim.

Unless of course you mis-interpret the last to mean doing acts of kindness only for your fellow Chasidim.

[Office of the Chief Rabbi]

Gimme loot, Hasidim!

[Yochanan Lavie]

Kesef, kesef tirdof.

[WoolSilkCotton]

There is no God but Dollah

[chaim36]

It' s time for the nut jobs of the 'YECHI' cult to learn about ethical behavior.The rebbe [ztl] would never have approved this crooked transactions to the detriment of creditors.

[FirstGenerationBavarianAmerican]

Maybe Jason can weigh in on this.

The Des Moines Register still has the original bankruptcy filing on their website:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/assets/
pdf/AgriprocessorsBankruptcy.pdf

The forms include a list of the 20 largest unsecured creditors. There is also a mailing matrix which I think includes the names of other unsecured creditors, as well as people who should receive notices. I don't think any of the organizations listed above are included in the list of unsecured creditors.

So, do these organizations have any claims still pending against Agrirocessors, or is the use of the word creditors just a formality in these complaints, meaning they at one time received money from Agriprocessors?

In some other clawback topics, I think it was brought up that clawback attorneys like Dan Childers work on commission and start out by sending letters to people who received money from the debtor. They demand repayment of money, whether the payment was preferential or not. Of course, some people like cattle farmers get a heart attack when they receive a letter like this. That is why I think it should be mandatory that clawback law should be taught in every high school, just like all the safety courses they teach.

As our moderator has noted, payments to Margareten's Yeshiva may have been legit. After that, things get curious. Did Agriprocessors provide legitimate charitable contributions to these organizations? Did these organizations loan money to Agriprocessors off the books, so that these checks were loan repayments? Or was it looting and money laundering?

I'm hoping Joe Sarachek writes a book someday. It surely will be more interesting than some of the books put out today by folks like radio DJ's and celebrity chefs. I'm still curious to know how long this company was under water financially.

[critical minyan]

claw it back. the creditors can claw it back from the "charities" who took it in.
get madoff trustee picard on it.

[jancsipista]

in the picture above i see 2 happy go lucky dudes father and son crime sindicate.

[yidandahalf]

Hear! Hear! Bring down Genack, the OU, and the whole lot of them!

[FirstGenerationBavarianAmerican]

Posted by: critical minyan | July 01, 2011 at 09:34 AM

Things get interesting if laundering was involved and the congregation does not have the money.

[tonda]

What ever happened to the initial allegations of the meth lab running at the plant?

That would be a pretty good source for cash that would need laundering, as the "legit" cashflow could be sheltered by accounting and tax law manipulation.

[FirstGenerationBavarianAmerican]

Posted by: tonda | July 01, 2011 at 09:55 AM

I think that allegation petered out. My personal guess is that one of the kids who reported that to the feds was actually watching the mixing of chemicals used in meat processing. White powder is white powder.

[yidandahalf]

I agree; the meth lab shtick never sounded for real.
Dollah U Akbar!

[yidandahalf]

As long as almost every corruption is enabled under the separation of church and state clause this sort of thing is common place across all 'religions'. Dismantle the clause and dismantle these pseudo-charities. Tax all of the parasites. (was I a Jacobin in a previous life? Who knows.)

[Yoel B]

One of the things that seemed to characterize SMR from early on was giving "tzedaka" with money that wasn't actually his to give away. Could some of this just be more of the same?

[Reuvain]

For years, and in some cases over a decade the Rubashkins supported many charitable groups. Now the Trustee is trying to get some of the money from the last two years prior to the bankruptcy. Only problem there is a long history of him donating to them.

[Shmarya]

Please.

His company books do not show these as donations.

One congregation does not even exist.

And legally he can't give donations with company money when he can't pay his bills.

[Reuvain]

The Bankruptcy Trustee has not even asserted that SMR was trying to hide funds by giving these groups. He gave them for many years. Alas our trusty vigilant blog master has uncovered fraud when not even the court thinks its exist.

[Shmarya]

The Bankruptcy Trustee has not even asserted that SMR was trying to hide funds by giving these groups. He gave them for many years. Alas our trusty vigilant blog master has uncovered fraud when not even the court thinks its exist.

Posted by: Reuvain | July 01, 2011 at 01:09 PM

Do you actually know how to read English? Did you read the documents?

You're either an idiot or delusional, Reuvain, and I'm betting on both.

[Yoel B]

And legally he can't give donations with company money when he can't pay his bills.

No question about that. I'm wondering if it's more like he started out pulling a $5 from the till of the butcher shop and donating it to some schnorrer and never stopped doing that even after it was a corporation, and kept it up even when he didn't have the money. Maybe even increased it with some sort of weird logic about tzedaka opening the conduits for income or some such. I've heard crazier things from people in financial trouble, just not from people in trouble on a Rubashkin scale.

[Shmarya]

I think a lot of the Rubashkin's tzedaka was done with money that was not theirs.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

like rubbishkin like the sect he belongs to:
petty deceiptful thieves all of them, feeding some jewish fools, with stolen plates of cholent for the purpose of swindling them too later!
oh yes, and the usa education day!

[sage]

Open Questions:

1. Has judgement been rendered in any or all of these cases?

2. If judgement has ordered any money to be paid to the Bankruptcy Attorney, has anything been paid, and if not, why not.

3. In a former judgement against SMR, has the $26 Million been paid, and if not, why not.

4. In a former judgement againast AR, has the $2 Million been paid, and if not, why not.

[Abracadabra]

So let me get this straight. In the 2 years prior to the company declaring bankruptcy, some of that time overlapping with the time after the Fed raid and the time when they knew there would be a Fed raid, $18 million was given to Charitable Organizations.

Assuming that this is 10% of net profit (ma'asser) the Rubashkins were making quite a fortune of profit.

Of course they could have realized the company was falling apart and given it to the charities with a little "deal" that the charities take a cut, and give ther rest back in cash and what not.

I HOPE the Feds investigate the charities to find out what was done with these funds.

Most suspicious is the funds donated to Rubashkin's son-in-law's non-existant organization.

Oh, but please donate to the Rubashkin's Pidyon Shevuyim fund - they need lots of money to pay the lawyers and still live in luxury. And Mrs. Rubashkin never worked a day in her life and can't start working now. She is too busy giving speeches on how Anti-Semitic the government must be to incarcerate her husband like this. And she has lots of Tehillim and fund-raising rallies to organize. You know they need the funds, please give generously. The money goes so quickly when there are poor lawyers to feed.

THIS WHOLE THING IS SICKENING!!!!!!

[Abracadabra]

Here's a question for Shmarya - or anyone who has the knowledge or the time to go through all the PDF files:

How much money was donated from the date of 2 months before the raid through the date bankruptcy was declared?

Anyway, no matter the answer to the question, everyone knows that one does NOT give charity from money needed to pay vendors and bills. At least half-normal people don't do that. Unless the money is not going to charity, but rather being laundered and then given right back to them in cash.

Remember that story about Rubashkin that was being promoted about a man who was either making a wedding for his daughter or who was destitute and who met Rubashkin on the street and Rubashkin was (supposedly) just coming from the bank and handed the man $10,000 cash.

Well - I always thought of the story not as pointing to a good deed, but pointing to major corruption. Who walks around with $10,000 cash? No one! No matter how wealthy you are, you don't need to deal with cash - everything works by checks and electronic payments. EVERYTHING. Unless you're laundering money. And that is why the story smells of fraud more than it does of generosity. Only mafia dons walk around with $10,000 of cash. Every other wealthy person writes out checks.

[WoolSilkCotton]

By the time they are done with this, they will tack on another 27 years to his sentence.

[yidandahalf]

Probably some of the 'donated' money above was and is recycled back by way of the pidyon fundraising. A neat little circle indeed.

[sage]

+++I HOPE the Feds investigate the charities to find out what was done with these funds.

Posted by: Abracadabra | July 01, 2011 at 04:20 PM+++

YES!!!!!

And if they do, and find this part of a money laundering scheme, these organizations should be added to the "long hoped for" RICO "Indictment List."

[Yosef ben Matitya]

by the feel of it, the recipients were possibly investors in a joint venture arrangement with sholom rubbashkin.

[deremes is sheker]

pinnyy lip_ shits from yatedd news should be investigated too for being involved this crook rubbishkan

[KoKo]

(quote) Do you actually know how to read English? Did you read the documents?

You're either an idiot or delusional, Reuvain, and I'm betting on both. (unquote)

Love you Shmarya!
Spread the truth!

[state of disgust]

A word or two about "meth lab:"

As one Iowa state appointed authority said to me, "with a little practice, you can make a batch of meth in a bathtub in about 20 minutes."

I would suggest those interested in this issue to try and google the term meth lab.

Northeast Iowa has been known as a meth producing area for some time. This is due to the presence of anhydrous ammonia in tanks on many of the farms where it is used as a fertilizer.

The refrigeration and freezer system at Agriprossors - now Agristar - is an ammonia based system. It wouldn't take much to tap into this system to make use of the ammonia for small, recreational based meth use.

BTW, there is a condition called "meth mouth" among heavy users of meth. Meth mouth causes the teeth of users to fall out.

Anyone notice people working at Agristar with major teeth problems?

[Hometown Postville]

Prior to the raid, I was told by a reliable source that SMR paid $25k toward substance abuse treatment for a non-Jewish employee.