Spotlight

Postville Conviction

Rubashkin plans appeal; another trial looms.

Eric Fingerhut
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Washington

F

acing a prison sentence of up
to 1,250 years following his
conviction last week on 86 of
91 fraud charges, Sholom Rubashkin
is hoping his exoneration will come
on appeal. But U.S. prosecutors are
looking forward to the next trial for
Rubashkin, the former vice president of
Agriprocessors when it was the nation's
largest kosher meat plant.
The next trial, for 72 immigration
violations, is scheduled to begin Dec. 2.
Rubashkin's immediate concern is
whether he will be released on bail
pending the trial. Prosecutors say he is
a flight risk, but defense lawyers filed
papers contending he is not.
Their client, the lawyers say, "remains
steadfastly committed to his communi-
ty both in Postville, Iowa, and the larger
religious Jewish community."
After a three-week trial in Sioux
Falls, S.D., Rubashkin, 50, was convict-
ed of bank, wire and mail fraud, money
laundering and ignoring an order to
pay livestock providers in the time pro-
vided by law. A sentencing date has not
yet been scheduled.
Rubashkin attorney Guy Cook told
the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier that
the appeal would center around the

Hate Crimes High
Jerusalem/JTA Hate crime is still a
significant problem in 56 countries in
North America, Europe and the former
Soviet Union, a new report says. The
Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe released its annual report
on Nov. 16 in honor of International
Tolerance Day.
According to the report of the OSCE's
Office for Democratic Institutions and
Human Rights, 2008 saw murders, arson,
beatings, vandalism and other crimes tar-
geted against persons or groups because of
their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orienta-
tion or other status. The report also stresses
that the full extent of hate crimes remains
obscured by a lack of reliable data.
Published annually, the report provides
statistics and other information on the
extent and types of hate crimes as well as

—

judge's decision to admit evidence
having to do with Rubashkin's alleged
employment of illegal immigrants. The
judge had split the immigration and
fraud charges into two separate trials.
"It has the effect of allowing the jury
to convict on one crime based on the
evidence of another," Cook told the
Courier. "Dirty him up and it's easier to
find criminal intent."

The Backdrop
The charges against Rubashkin stem
from a May 2008 immigration raid on
Agriprocessors' plant in Postville, Iowa,
which found hundreds of immigration
violations and forced the plant into bank-
ruptcy.
During the trial, which was moved
to South Dakota out of concern that
media coverage had tainted the jury
pool in Iowa, the former chief financial
officer of the company, Mitch Meltzer,
testified that he and four other employ-
ees were sometimes paid their salaries
in cash to avoid taxes.
Meltzer also said he created false
invoices called "tootsies" to demon-
strate to the bank, which had extended
Agriprocessors a revolving $35 million
line of credit, that money was still com-
ing into the company.
Officials of companies that dealt
with Agriprocessors testified that their
records did not match Agriprocessors'
billing invoices. Witnesses also said

government responses. It is based on data
received from OSCE participating states,
intergovernmental agencies and civil soci-
ety groups.
The report points out significant gaps
in data collection in most participating
states. Some do not collect any statistics
on hate crimes, while others do not make
the data public. The report emphasizes the
need to record, investigate and prosecute
hate crime cases, improve data collection
and strengthen cooperation with civil
society to complement government efforts.
The Anti-Defamation League and
Human Rights First released a joint reac-
tion paper to the report offering recom-
mendations on how to improve countries'
data collection.

Popular Israeli Names
Jerusalem/JTA
Noam was the most

—

Rubashkin directed customer pay-
ments into the wrong bank accounts
and used the money to pay for personal
expenses.
On the stand, Rubashkin admitted he
made mistakes but said he never inten-
tionally violated the law.
"I'm a human being," he said. "I took
the information people gave me and
sort of went with it without really drill-
ing down to see if it was real or not."
Rubashkin also testified that he
never read the $35 million line of credit

Shlomo Rubashkin was
convicted of bank, wire
and mail fraud, and
money laundering.

agreement before signing it.
He compared himself to a "pioneer
of the West," helping build a strong
Chabad-Lubavitch community in
Postville.
"In the beginning, it was quite a task
to get one or two people to come there
and someone to teach:' he said.
Rubashkin was offered a plea deal
before the trial, but the Des Moines
Register reported Rubashkin told

popular name for Israeli babies born in
2008.
The name was given to 1,970 boys and 515
girls, according to Israel's Central Bureau
of Statistics, which released the data in
advance of Universal Children's Day on
Nov. 20.
For Jewish Israeli boys, the other most
popular names were Itai, Ori, Daniel,
Yehonatan, David, Ido, Moshe, Yosef and
Yonatan. For Jewish Israeli girls, the names
topping the list were Noa, Shira, Yael,
Tamar, Maya, Talia, Sara, Hila, Michal and
Adi.
One-quarter of Muslim Israeli boys
born in Israel in 2008 were given names
derived from the name of the prophet
Muhammad, including Muhammad,
Ahmed and Mahmoud.
Some 156,900 babies were born in Israel
that year.

friends he rejected it because he is
innocent and had committed no crime.

Conservative Take
The Conservative movement's Hekhsher
Tzedek Commission, which has been
working to create an ethnical kashrut
seal, said the verdict "delivers both justice
and a heavy heart:' noting that the trial
on charges of worker mistreatment has
not even begun.
The commission's director, Rabbi
Morris Allen, said in a statement that
two years before the raid, the corn-
mission had attempted to "steer the
Rubashkin family towards taking
responsibility and correcting their mis-
takes," but the Rubashkin family turned
a "deaf ear" toward such calls and
showed a "flagrant disregard for the law
and ethical behavior.
"There is neither joy nor a sense of
schadenfraude in yesterday's conviction:'
the commission said in a statement.
"Those of us who toil in the field of tik-
kun olam are downright demoralized by
this highly preventable outcome."
One revelation at the trial that
could have implications for next
month's immigration trial was that the
Agriprocessors plant twice rejected the
employment application of a federal
informant because of fraudulent work
documents. He was hired the third time
he applied after he brought legitimate
papers. II

Answering
Israel's Critics

The Charge
Veteran reporter Helen Thomas of
Hearst Newspapers criticized U.S. policy
toward the election of Hamas and of its
current leaders in Gaza, saying it won a
fair, democratic election there.

The Answer
Thomas ignores Hamas' violent take-
over of Gaza in 2007 and the State
Department's declaration of the group
as terrorist, two disregarded facts that
may color her reporting.

- Allan Gale, Jewish Community Relations

Council of Metropolitan Detroit

© Jewish Renaissance Media, Nov. 26, 2009

November 26 R 2009

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