I don't fully buy this. Why?
Because the potential buyers are all unnamed foreign "investors," Ukrainian and Israeli, and look like possible front groups for the Rubashkin family. The Rubashkins possible use of a front group to cover their continued ownership of Agriprocessors has been a fear of several people close to the unraveling situation in Postville for months.
Lawyer says Agriprocessors may be sold
BY TONY LEYS
The Agriprocessors meatpacking plant could be sold within days, a lawyer for the company’s former executive said in court today.
The plant in Postville, which has filed for bankruptcy, suspended all operations Monday.
Its owner and several of its former executives face criminal charges, including allegations that they knowingly hired illegal immigrants and underage workers.
Baruch Weiss, a lawyer for former Agriprocessors executive Sholom Rubashkin, told a judge today that unnamed investors are in negotiations to buy the company.
“Very soon, the company will be out of Rubashkin hands,” he said.
“This sale will be consummated because the company must be sold,” he added.
Weiss made the comments while countering a prosecutor’s prediction that Rubashkin would tamper with records and potential witnesses if he was released from jail. Weiss said once the sale is complete, his client would have no access to the company. In the meantime, he said, the company’s new chief executive officer has vowed to use an electronic security system to ensure Rubashkin does not enter the plant.
Weiss said the sale of the plant and equipment would bring in millions of dollars, which would help repay lenders who are at the heart of a federal bank-fraud charge against his client.
In another sign of financial problems, workers said this evening that they had not received paychecks due to them last Friday. Mark Stubbs, who said he was a maintenance supervisor, said by phone from Postville that he’d seen three groups of potential investors, including some from Israel, touring the plant recently. When asked if he thought the business might reopen soon, he said, “Don’t know, don’t care. We’ve waited long enough. It’s time to move on before everybody starves to death.”
Agriprocessors spokesman Chaim Abrahams said the company hopes to get permission from a bankruptcy trustee to give out paychecks Thursday and aims to restart production soon.