Cedar Rapids, IA – Sholom Rubashkin deserves the prison time he received Tuesday in federal court, prosecutors said after a judge sentenced the former eastern Iowa meatpacking executive to 27 years.
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Bob Teig, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, said the massive financial fraud scheme at Agriprocessors Inc. “cries out for a sentence like this.”
Rubashkin, 50, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids and ordered to pay $27 million in restitution to banks and a cattle provider caught in the scheme.
Rubashkin was convicted of 86 fraud-related federal crimes in November, for his part in an effort to defraud the plant’s lenders to collect advances on a loan. The plan collapsed after a May 2008 raid at the Postville plant that forced the owners to file for bankruptcy.
Prosecutors, who have seldom spoke publicly since the immigration raid, said the fraud case ranked among the largest ever in Iowa’s northern district.
“It is a lengthy sentence,” Teig said. “But he earned a lengthy sentence. It’s hard to get a 27-year sentence for a white-collar crime. It is very difficult.”
Teig said Rubashkin’s crimes differed from other high-profile, white-collar cases with lesser sentences because of his actions. U.S. District Judge Linda Reade concluded in her ruling that Rubashkin led the fraud, involved others in the plot and lied at his trial. Teig said Rubashkin consistently refused to cooperate with authorities.
Assistant U.S Attorney Peter Deegan Jr., one of three prosecutors in the case, said financial crimes kept surfacing as investigators dug into the plant’s books. Rubashkin’s money laundering through a local school and grocery store hindered but did not stop the investigation, he said.
“You’ve got such a wide range of criminal activity here,” Deegan said. “The case just kept building, and building, and building. Every time you turned over another rock, there was another crime being committed – and usually, it led to Sholom Rubashkin.”
Defense lawyers vowed to appeal, and railed against the sentence in a press conference with at least 100 of Rubashkin’s Orthodox Jewish supporters.
Several in the group toted signs in front of the television cameras. One sign read: “27 years for overstating assets? That makes sense? OMG!”
“While this may appear to be the end of the case, it is not,” defense lawyer Guy Cook said. “It is indeed the beginning of the case. It’s round one, if you will.”
Bob Barr, a former Georgia congressman who joined Rubashkin’s legal team for the appeal, said the sentence was “unjust, unnecessary, and unreasonable.” He held up a copy of Reade’s ruling and said, “This will not stand.”
Rubashkin showed little emotion when the decision was read.
Lrt the reshoim vent. They are just trying to show they are not afraid. Every sane person knows that the judge and prosecution will look like fools after appeal.
He sure deserved it, bucause he is a JEW. Teig must be a decendent of HAMAN and that would justify a life sentance or Capital punishment during the Haman’s times.
1)Rubashkin made every payment till nazi judge reade ordered raid to kill rubashkins business. Overstating assets when one has the ability to make payments to bank isn’t “massive financial fraud scheme!
2)Bank lost abt 4 million net as abt 20 million was paid in interest payments!
3)In mho, enron was a larger “financial fraud scheme ” than rubashkin and got way less years.
IF THE WORDS “LARGE” AND “SCHEME” are to be used, its abt the “LARGE SCHEME” of the modern day j’aacuse!
4)Prosecutor claims: “the more we dug the more the case kept on building”. Yeah right?!? The child labor charges were tossed out, the illegal immigration charges were dropped, as defense proved that jail terms for employment of illegals r unprecedented! If this statmement shall be used it should be used against prosecutor:”the more we dug into it (prosecution) the more the case kept on building”!
Agudah and young israel shall hire private investigators to prove how biased and anti semitic judge reade and prosecution is!
Nebech. A banda resuim it’s a crazy system
Part of the reason that most orthodox jews can’t fathom a harsh sentance for financial fraud is that in jewish law there is no such thing as prison for financial wrong doing. In jewish law, if you commit fraud or theft you pay it back. Some times with interest sometimes without. For us jews it takes a major paradigm shift to comprehend 27 rears prison for financial fraud no matter how massive the fraud was.
Yup, I happen to agree with the prosecutor on this one, “Rubashkin earned it because he is a religious Jew”.
Rubashkin’s indictment was artificially “loaded” to make him look worse than he was. If he sent a document by fax and then sent a hard copy by mail, he was charged with 2 counts for the same document. He was also charged with paying for livestock “late.” the definition of late is after 24 hours, according to a 1922 law which was enacted when packers met ranchers and literally traded cash for cattle and the rancher would have a hard time tracking down the buyer if he wasn’t paid on the spot. In today’s world, when a purchase is invoiced and an accountant enters the invoice in a system and then the funds are transferred, it took 2-3 days – and everyone was paid. HE IS THE ONLY PERSON WHO HAS EVER BEEN CRIMINALLY CHARGED UNDER THIS OBSOLETE LAW. At his trial, he was smeared for employing underage workers even though he wasn’t charged with it at that trial and he was later cleared of all abuse. The proceedings stemmed from an immigration raid – but the rest of the country is under executive order to do nothing about illegal immigrants.
The whole proceeding was a kangaroo court and smear campaign.
Unless the govt has it coming to you, then you ‘earned it’ by not mentioning one person on your census forms.
May this only be the added darkness that comes before dawn.
ונקתי דמם לא נקתי וה’ שוכן בציון
what rasha! deserved it??.in china you get such sentences for such crimes. with this judge who all say( SEE postings on judge mead blog) what a cruel judge she is, a rashante of the first order .were talking about posters way back, lawyers etc who said so, lawyers who had exprience in court with her
Job well done guys….you set out to destroy a good person who made mistakes and came through with flying colors. Destroying a town and countless people’s lives was a nice side benefit, wasn’t it?
And Shaul from Monsey, why don’t you fly out to Iowa to have a celebratory drink with these fine enforcersof the law?
I am absolutely heartbroken at such a severe sentence. Could someone tell me if he will be serving it in an “open” prison.Surely that is the least they can do to him. We must never give up saying tehillim for a lighter sentence, if not now, IYH one day in the near future
Kgb. either you cooperate, or we bring you down. thats what we read into this.
Obviously it seems everyone has 100 percent support for rubashkin always. Just what I don’t understand is is everyone just Mad about the lengthy sentence or does everyone want him to just go free? I mean he did commit a big fraud so is it not justice to go to jail for let’s say 7 years. If the judge gave him 7 years wud everyone still be screaming?
It’s not hard at all to draw a 27 year sentence for white collar crime, and being Jewish certainly helps. The so-called Guidelines give equal weight to so-called “intended fraud” as they do actual. Intended fraud is a nebulous concept. Conspiracy is a nebulous concept. “obstruction of justice” is a nebulous concept. “Ringleader” and “sophisticated means” and “money laundering” are all nebulous concepts. None has any sort of strict standard of proof. Add them all together for the same act, imagine a huge “potential loss” and you easily get to 27 years. None of these are crimes in halacha.
#2 , I’m no happier with the sentence than anyone. The difference between me and the shtetel mongers is I understand how and why this happened. It has nothing to do with antisemitism and conspiracy.
Name one thinbg Rubashkin did to motivate the prosecution to intervene on his behalf or one thing he did in court to motivate the judge to show leniency. Answer: ZERO.
This is the democracy of America you could be a serius killer and you don’t get such a sentence but once its a federal case then you could go fly a kite
its not that difficult at all!all u have to do is say it and bang your gavel and its done!!it woulda been just as easy to give him a lesser sentence!!but shes a disgrace to her profession and decided to go the evil route!
I think the prosecutor meant murder
The trial shows what can happen when a prosecutor fiddles with the “mesora” of how US laws are applied.
If we can learn anything from this trial, I think that an important introspective lesson is that we shouldn’t fiddle with our mesora for phony geirus, Rabbah titles, or any other similar endeavors.
Take Heed!
In reply to the comment that halakha does not recognize imprisonment for theft, please see Teshuvoth ha-Ritva, No. 159, Teshuvoth Tashbetz, 3:168 and Teshuvoth Dibre Riboth, No. 232 which give beth din the authority [ i.e. makin ve-onshin she’lo mid hadin] to imprison a thief. And in fact, these poskim ruled so.
I think it is time for the public to have a look into Bob Tiegs dealings
Rubashkin is accused of a victim less crime, there are not victims here, as of the banks are they really victims here? They had victimized the entire US and the world with their actions which almost brought down our economy, why isn’t anyone in jail from Goldman Sachs, why isn’t anyone doing prison time from AIG? Because they are the government, they control the government, and if they loose a couple of million due to a bad decision to loan it to you then you go to jail.
Putting anyone in jail for 27 years regardless of what race or color for financial crime is wrong. And those responsible for doing so will not die before they have suffered great pain in their personal life guaranteed!
90% of non-paying house mortgages in this financial meltdown time, is because of so called ‘overstated assets’ in the loan application which resulted in the inability to make the monthly payments wow! … justice can not be selective..
What happened in Postville was a tragedy and the kashrus establishment must be prepared to do cheshbon nefesh. Something was going wrong there for many years and we chose to ignore it because those pointing out difficulties be they unions, bloggers, animal welfare activists or Conservative Jews were not ‘unserer’.
Working in a slaugherhouse is whilst not skilled difficult and unpleasant. To get people to work in this industry, you needed to pay them substantially more then they would receive on welfare and well above minimum wage and allow the workers to be unionized to protect their positions. Not that long ago workers in this industry would receive (adjusted for inflation) $15 p.h.
The only reason why any employer in the meat industry would wish to move to Iowa from the big cities is to use illegal labor. Illegal workers cannot get welfare or belong to a union. They have no choice but to work at considerable less pay then your average unionized American worker. Prejudicing American workers to improperly benefit employers and the kashrus industry (including the hechsher providers) is wrong.
Kashrus belongs in NYC and properly paid US workers not Iowa and illegal aliens
everybody conveniently seems to forget one minor detail which destroys any credibility of the prosecution. before they charged smr with financial fraud, they slyly demanded that the bank call the loan in connection with the raid. up until then agri was paying the loan on time. then they come up with the claim that the overstating income to get a loan caused extensive damage. i hope the justice dept reviews that part and ensure that federal prosecutors are deterred from such perjury in the future.
well unfortuntly the best us and our leader can do is speak out where is the protest we have the ability to organize a protest of hunderds of thousands of yidden i have never seen such anger and readiness unity to go out and protest and show the world the unjustice we are getting every time tehre is a hiemshe yid on trial and all we can do is gather in bes yakkv in boro park what are we waiting for the situaion to cool off and nobody will care and everybody will forget there is no way a massive protest will not help klal isreal for teh futrure and it will help this case where are the asknim anybody please
29, So committing perjury helped? Testifying that he didn’t divert cash when they had the accounts and testimony against him helped? If everyone knew the judge was so tough, bombarding her with public relations hoopla helped? Any idiot knows that if you can’t win in court raise a ruckus out of court – but when you do that you concede that Ýour defense has no merit. Putting up Abe Roth to testify helped? The judge called his testimony so far from reasonable as to render it meaningless. But if there was merit to his defense why did Roth come off like a fool? You want mercy from the judge yet you deny a crime was committed AFTER a guilty verdict and play victim instead of show remorse? STUPID. The defense was STUPID. Guy Cook is a waste she’bwaste. It’s only round 1? Gee, Guy, what’s the reversal rate on appeal? Its about ten percent of the acquittal rate. Get real. If SMR wanted mercy he should have shown some humility and not have been so arrogant.
i have reserved comment till now- i have long been following the case in the religious media, as well as gentile media including the des moines papers which have explained the logic of the deserved sentence.
to the non-jew and the non educated, the prosecution creates a fantastic case portraying a crook, period.
never retracting, the prosecution steems forward ethicaly building a case built on solid evidence, proving beyond a doubt guilty.
to the detriment of his supporters who woke up late in the game- initaliy distancing themselves from him-then coming around when battered on the brains that this is a lynching of their religion.
when a deeper look into the case startled the diggers… as they peeled apart and stripped the prosecution….. understanding its tactics …. its motives…. its agenda… suddenly they became motivated to defend to protect to fight for smr.
the court proceedings ,denial of baiil, denial of motions to provide evidence to defend, allowance of unrelated slant by the prosecution…. the list goes on
denial of religious freedom in jail, abuse in jail,civil rights abuses, disparate treatment….
he now has a legal team that consider it a cause
Stanford University law professor Robert Weisberg called Rubashkin’s 27-year sentence “dubious” even though severe sentences are increasingly common in the wake of major fraud cases, such as that against Enron. The energy company’s 2001 collapse cost thousands of jobs and billions of dollars.
Weisberg contended Rubashkin’s case does not rise to such a level.
“I don’t understand why it was a longer sentence than what the prosecution asked for, especially when the prosecution asked for a sentence that was already pretty severe,” Weisberg said.
But Robert Rigg, a law professor at Drake University in Des Moines, said the slaughterhouse case is by no means small, “especially for Iowa.”
He said the raid’s economic impact and disruption the case caused in Postville likely factored into Reade’s sentencing.
“There is a lot of collateral damage here and you can understand why a judge would take the facts and the circumstances of the case as an aggravating factor,” Rigg said.
Defense attorneys argue Reade improperly considered other factors, such as the raid and immigration case, in sentencing for the fraud conviction. The judge did not specifically address her reasoning for the length
He “earned” it because he is a religious jew. They learned from the israeli high court how to hate and sentence religious jews.
I totally agree that this sentence was harsh and extreme, and I wish SMR all the best.
But all of you who make it sound he didn’t nothing wrong, and that this is anti-Semitism are also extreme and childish.
The reason he got 27 years because he showed no remorse and no respect for the system and laws – even after the raid, after he god caught
I agree with R. Avrohom Schorr on this one. It is the very system that the heimeshe oilam embraces to resolve its disputes that has bitten them.
Where’s the outcry about the damage this does to our reputation?
Once upon a time Yidishkeit equaled Ehrlichkeit; nowadays it seems that frum=krum.
Every time one of us “cuts a corner” we all suffer. Our reputation suffers.
This fellow and his lovely family lived “the good life” for many years (proof: he was a BIG Ba’al Tzedoko) and now they are discovering that crime doesn’t pay.
Hashem’s seal is EMES – and not only for the judicial system, but also for the rest of us.
Look at the picture the guy even combs his hair like Hitler from right to left!
Vahyahchazek es Hashem lev Paroh! It should be that this sweetens the judgement for its speedy undoing!
Is there anything funnier than listening to posters talk about appeal and it ain’t over and listening to Guy The Cooker say its onlŸ round 1? Its a joke and a half. Guy, why don’t let everyone in on what you already know? That AT BEST the 8th Circuit sends the sentencing BACK to…you guessed it, Judge Reade. And did anybody but me notice that in the sentencing memo she RESERVED upward modifications not applied yet based on SMRs obstruction? Guy and Nat the Old Bat have Lipshutz et al scammed, they’ll rake in hundreds of thousands more.
We Jews are paying the price of abandoning our early slant for liberelism of our parents and grandparents. Now that we became fat and rich we are all conservatives; on the issues of immigration (after we all got in), welfare (after we milked it good) and now we suffer on our stand for “law and order”. You wanted ‘law and order’; you got it and will continue to get it.
When all the “truths” come out in the appeal and an investigation into Tiegs and all the others involved gets under way. We will see how many “years” he has earned for himself and others for all the lies and misuse of power. Every rock that is turned over will lead to another conspiracy, perjury and coercion.
It is incredible that Mr. Tiegs considers himself on a higher madreiga than former attorney generals of this country. Lets see how this all plays itself out in the appeal.
Wow, I just read the sentencing memo. Unbelievable! The whole basis of his sentence was a $26 million loss to the lendor. But, the fact is in the memo it shows Korf offered $21,000,000 for the loan, in cash! That would leave MAYBE $5,000,000 but that could be removed based upon the time value of the cash. That would have lowered this to a nothing crime. They even threw a 1921 Packer’s law at him and said he created a loss of $3,800 (yes, three thousand eight hundred) to a cattle supplier for paying an invoice late…even though it was fully paid! Yes, this sentence may be significantly lowered after appeal. If I was his attorney, I would appeal and they have a great chance of lowering the sentence significantly. Sholom’s real “crime” was being an “arrogant Jew” and not showing enough remorse for what he supposedly did. Personally, I think his lawyers stunk! His sentence was based on a false formula. Sure, it will come out in the appeal, but will Sholom get bail, does he have the $ to appeal? This really was a case of a biased prosecution and judge. Anti semitism? Maybe, maybe not, but it sure did not help that he was the “other.” Let’s not forget the ruined lives!
It is simply amazing to see all who write, and blame anti semitism, and forego the facts that he is a common crook fraudster, con man, and who knows what else.
One thing is certain, he is no Baal Tzdekak! Who can steal from one place, and give to another and call that charity?
When people begin to see him for what he really is, then maybe he himself will begin to change his attitude, and begin the proc ess of Tshuvah! Until then, and only then you all empower him to be what he is A COMMON CROOK.
Take this as a teachable moment, and teach your children, that crime does not pay, and that there are personal consequences. A jail term!
It is like the guy that is stopped for speeding, and is given a ticket. The first thing out of his mouth, anti Semitic cop! Never mind we were speeding in a school zone, or going 85 in a 45 speed zone.
All we see is anti semitism!!
The prosecution was way overzealous, that I agree. But my gut feeling is that SMR did more damage to himself than sensible. He should have rolled over, begged on his hands and knees and taken some type of deal. I’m talking about all the way at the BEGINNING of this headache – when the feds were planning their 1st raid. By now that were not offering any special plea deal (though MUCH better than 27 years). It already became way too personal this vendetta. Turned into an unfortunate “us” vs “them” contest. We lost.
Let me start by saying that we should all be Mispallel for Rubashkin and his family and should have Rachmanus for their situation. That being said, we as Kllal Yisrael need to look in the mirror and stop once and for all all this “Heimishe” G’neiva that have become part and parcel with us. It must STOP! It is rampant and you all know what I mean. The Chillul HaShem that this causes is beyond the pale. I urge everyone to read the timeless words of HaGoan HaRav Shimon Schwab ZT”L. Cont..
Chillul Hashem: Desecration of G-d’s Name
From Rav Schwab:
Whenever we gather in prayer invariably we do recite or respond to the words of Kaddish: “May His Great Name be magnified and sanctified”. And whenever we introduce the daily Kedusho we call out: “Let us sanctify Your Name in the world”. And every so often during the course of our Tefilloh we emphasize our desire to belong to the sanctifiers of the Divine Name amongst men true to the injunction contained in Vayikro (22,33) “You shall not desecrate My Holy Name and I shall become sanctified in the midst of the children of Israel.”
The second sentence of Sh’ma Yisroel begins with the command: “You shall love Hashem”, which is interpreted by our Sages: “Let the name of Hashem become beloved through you.” In other words, we are supposed to lead the kind of exemplary life which would contribute to the universal adoration of G-d and which would, in turn, enhance the glory and lustre of the Torah, adding respect for the dignity of the Jewish people as a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation.
The very opposite of the sanctification is the desecration of the Name as condemned by the Prophet with the scathing words (Yechezkel 36): “They came to the nations and desecrated my Holy Name, so that one said to them, is this the people of G-d who came from His land?”
Every form of Chillul Hashem lowers the awareness of the Divine Presence in the world. But if the desecrator happens to be a professed Torah observer or, even worse, a so-called scholar of the Torah, then the Chillul Hashem not only weakens the respect for Torah on one hand, but strengthens on the other hand the defiance of the non-observer and adds fuel to the scoffers, fanning the fires of religious insurrection all around. Chillul Hashem is responsible, directly or indirectly, for the increase frivolity, heresy and licentiousness in the world. Therefore, we should not be surprised reading the harsh words of condemnation we find in the Talmud: “He who has committed Chillul Hashem, even Teshuvoh, Yom Kippur and suffering cannot fully atone for his sin until the day of his death (Yoma 86).”
Cont…
“Better to commit a sin in secrecy than to commit Chillul Hashem in public (Kiddushin 40).
“There is no delay in the Divine punishment for Chillul Hashem, whether committed knowingly or unknowingly (ibid.)”.
“If one steals from a non -Jew, swears falsely and dies, his death is no atonement for his sin because of Chillul Hashem” (Tosefta B. Kamma, 10).
“He who desecrates the name of Heaven in secrecy is punished in public” (Avoth 4).
“All sins are forgiven by G-d but Chillul Hashem He punishes immediately” (Sifri Haazinu).
This is but a small selection from the many fierce condemnations addressed by our Sages to the desecrators of the Divine Name.
All this comes to mind at this time since some perpetrators of Chillul Hashem are making the headlines of our daily newspapers. Certainly we are not sitting in judgment of the persons who are publicly accused and we have to wait whether the indictments will be borne out by irrefutable evidence. However, be it as it may, the Chillul Hashem is there in the worst possible way. “Rabbi” so and so, who sits in court with his velvet Yarmulka in full view of a television audience composed of millions of viewers, is accused of having ruthlessly enriched himself at the expense of others, flaunting the laws of G-d and man, exploiting, conniving and manipulating – in short, desecrating all the fundamentals of Torah Judaism. And this sorry onslaught on our Jewish sensitiveness is repeated by similar allegations, proven or unproven, involving more prominent men who are stigmatized as orthodox Jews, sometimes even with so-called rabbinic diplomas.
While it is obvious that the vast majority of loyal and observant Torah Jews deal honestly and correctly with their fellow men, a very small minority of criminal perpetrators suffices to cast sinister aspersions on all orthodox Jews and, what is.
Suppose I have cheated my neighbor or my Government and then I stand in the midst of a congregation of honest and decent men and women to recite the Kaddish which is the prayer for Kiddush Hashem in the world. What audacity! What a shame! Can there be a worse contradiction than the strict Sabbath observer who may also be a stickler for Kashrus, and who at the same time violates the spirit of Shabbos and Kashrus during the week with non-kosher money manipulations?
Let us repeat. The profaners and the desecrators are only a handful of unscrupulous people and we even hope that some of them will be proved innocent. But it needs only very few violators to give us all a rotten name, aiding and abetting our many adversaries and antagonizing our few friends.
Therefore, no white-washing, no condoning, no apologizing on behalf of the desecrators. Let us make it clear that anyone who besmirches the sacred Name ceases to be our friend. He has unwittingly defected from our ranks and has joined our antagonists, to make us all suffer in his wake. And – noblesse oblige – the more prominent a man has become in orthodox Jewish circles the more obligated he must feel to observe the most painstaking scrupulousness in his dealings with the outside world.
Our observance of Torah and Mitzvos is regulated by the Choshen Mishpot, the code of social justice no less than by the other codes of the Shulchan Aruch. Whoever betrays his loyalty to one portion of the Torah uproots all others. For, at the roots of Chillul Hashem are gross materialism, blatant selfishness, insatiable love of wealth and brazen disregard for common decency. Even if, strangely enough, as it sometimes happens – those ugly traits go together with excessive charity and benevolence. We call this type of twisted ethics “Mitzvah Ha’Boah B’Averah” – i.e. virtue acquired by sin, which is worthless – less than worthless. It is a travesty and a farce. It means playing jokes with the Torah. It is blasphemy and therefore unforgivable. Let us proclaim, loud and clear, that we shall have no part of such sickly “Yiddishkeit”. Our aim is to strive for Kiddush Hashem. And in order to reach this goal we shall band together and march together, we and our children “Nikiyei Kappayim U’Vorei Leivov” with clean hands and pure hearts towards the dawn of Geuloh, speedily in our days.
{Written by Rav Shimon Schwab z’tl in 1975, printed by C.I.S. publishers in 1998 – Selected Writings #46 }