Sholom M. Rubashkin

Rubashkin, who is the 50-year-old son of Agriprocessors founder and president A. Aaron Rubashkin, was convicted of all possible money laundering and mail, wire and bank fraud charges. He was also convicted on 15 out of 20 counts of failing to provide timely pay to livestock auctions and providers.

The verdict followed nearly a month of testimony and evidence in which the government sought to paint Rubashkin as one, if not the, mastermind in a plot to defraud creditors. The defense team, in contrast, chose to portray Rubashkin as inexperienced, naive and unprepared to serve as day-to-day manager for such a large undertaking as the kosher meatpacking plant in Postville.

Following the lengthy reading of the verdict, Rubashkin was taken into federal custody, and his defense attorney, Guy Cook, pledged to appeal. Rubashkin is expected to return to eastern Iowa next week for sentencing and a possible bail hearing pending appeal. He faces a maximum sentence of more than 1,000 years in prison for the guilty verdicts.

An early December trial has been slated for an additional 72 federal immigration-related charges against Rubashkin, and he also faces a trial in state court this spring for possible child labor law violations.

All of the charges stem back to a massive May 12, 2008 immigration raid at the Postville facility. More than 300 immigrant workers detained by federal authorities pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to identity theft within days of their apprehension, and the bulk have been deported after serving brief federal prison sentences. Some immigrant workers, however, continue to live in and around Postville and are expected to be called by the prosecution in the upcoming trial.

The road between the actual raid and the federal trial in Sioux Falls, S.D., was long and has often wound its way through traditionally uncomfortable conversations for Americans regarding immigration, civil rights, religious expression and the composition and worth of charity.

The Rubashkin family, all ultra-orthodox Jews affiliated with the Hasidic Chabad Lubavitch movement, have at times suggested that the charges against them stem not from any alleged illegal activity, but from anti-Semitism. Throughout the investigation, and especially following the initial arrest and jailing of Sholom Rubashkin, many of the Jewish religious faithful, either through their own conscience or through the prodding and help of Chabad, have defended the Rubashkins from wrongdoing and stood as character witnesses for the family’s contributions.

Both inside and outside of Jewish circles, however, the Rubashkins have drawn criticism, many believing that generosity was born of ill-gotten-gains, harvested on the back of an underpaid and often mistreated immigrant workforce. Media reports, which prompted the move of the trials from Iowa to South Dakota, have given supposed victims of child labor and sexual harassment at the Postville plant a voice.

The company known as Agriprocessors fell into bankruptcy last year, and has re-emerged as AgriStar under the new ownership of SHF Industries, a venture of Canadian businessman Hershey Friedman. Heshy Rubaskin, brother to Sholom and son of Aaron, continues to work at the reborn business.

At least six former members of plant management or the human resources department have pleaded guilty in the wake of the 2008 immigration raid:

April 13, 2009 — Elizabeth Billmeyer, 48 and the former human resources manager, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit and one count of knowingly accepting false resident alien cards.

March 19, 2009 — Penny Ann Hanson, 41 and a former human resources employee, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make false statements on immigration documents.

Dec. 10, 2008 — Karina Pilar Freund, 29 and a former human resources employee, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of aiding and abetting a pattern or practice of hiring undocumented aliens.

Oct. 29, 2008 — Laura Althouse, 38 and a former human resources employee, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens and one count of aggravated identity theft.

Aug. 27, 2008 — Martin De La Rosa-Loera, 43 and a former plant supervisor, pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting the harboring of undocumented aliens.

Aug. 20, 2008 — Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, 35 and a former plant supervisor, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to hire illegal aliens and one count of aiding and abetting the hiring of illegal aliens.

Former plant operations manager Brent Beebe, 51, will soon be tried on immigration-related charges in federal court. Two additional plant managers — Hosam Amara and Zeev Levi — also face criminal charges, but have yet to be apprehended by authorities.

The case, which had been scheduled to start next month, was delayed after Judge Nathan Callahan received requests from both prosecutors and defendants. A new date has not been set, but the groups are scheduled to come back before the judge on Jan. 6, 2010 for a status hearing.

In September 2008, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office charged several persons affiliated with the Agriprocessors plant — the site of a massive immigration raid in May 2008 — with more than 9,000 counts of child labor law violations. Named in the state charges were A. Aaron Rubashkin (company founder and owner), Sholom Rubashkin (day-to-day chief executive officer), Elizabeth Billmeyer (director of human resources), Laura Althouse (human resources worker) and Karina Freund (human resources employee).

Nearly all of those facing these state charges have also been charged and/or faced federal immigration-related charges.

Elizabeth Billmeyer, 48, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit and one count of knowingly accepting false resident alien cards. Billmeyer was charged on March 31, following information that she had conspired for more than five years with two other employees at Agriprocessors to employ illegal immigrants for commercial advantage and private financial gain. It was also during that time, according to court records, that Billmeyer accepted alien resident cards that she knew to be fraudulent.

Billmeyer remains free on bond pending sentencing. She faces a possible maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $500,000 fine, a $200 special assessment and six years of supervised release following any prison term. Billmeyer is also one of the Agriprocessors employees named in a state case that alleges more than 9,000 violations of child labor laws.

The case is one of many in the wake of a federal immigration enforcement effort at the plant last year that netted 389 workers. Two individuals that worked under Billmeyer in the human resources department, Laura Althouse and Katrina Freund, have already made guilty pleas. Other supervisors and members of management at the plant await their day in court. Sholom Rubashkin, son of the company founder and day-to-day executive in Postville, is scheduled for trial in September on numerous charges relating from immigration conspiracy to bank fraud.

The future of the plant remains in turmoil as creditors and potential buyers hash out a possible Chapter 11 bankruptcy sale.

Elizabeth Billmeyer, 48, of Postville is facing one count of conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit and one count of knowingly accepting false resident alien cards. The charges were outlined in documents filed today with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa.

The documents allege that, during at least five years preceding the immigration raid, Billmeyer conspired with others to harbor illegal aliens at Agriprocessors for the purpose of commercial advantage and private financial gain. During the same time period, she is also believed to have knowingly accepted false resident alien identification cards.

If convicted on the charges, Billmeyer faces a possible maximum of 20 years in prison, a $500,000 fine and a $200 special assessment. In addition she could face a maximum of six years of supervised release following any prison term. Billmeyer was also named in a state suit alleging more than 9,000 counts of child labor law violations.

In addition to the charges against Billmeyer, the U.S. attorney’s office also filed an amended 79-count superseding indictment against Agriprocessors, Inc., former Agriprocessors executive Sholom Rubashkin and several plant managers. The new document adds factual allegations to a previous indictment, deletes two previously charged counts and consolidates several previously charged counts.

The new indictment includes one count of conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit, one count of harboring undocumented aliens for profit, one count of conspiracy to commit document fraud, one count of aiding and abetting document fraud, seven counts of aggravated identity theft, 14 counts of bank fraud, 24 counts of making false statements to a bank, 10 counts of money laundering and 20 counts of willfully violating an order of the U.S. Department of Agriculture secretary.

Both Rubashkin and Brent Beebe, a plant supervisor, appeared previously before the court and were released on several conditions that included electronic monitoring. Arraignments on the new indictment have not yet be set.

Federal prosecutors indicate that the investigation, which began in October 2007, remains ongoing.

The Agriprocessors plant, once the largest employer in the Postville area, was the site of a federal raid that netted 389 workers on immigration-related charges. Most were tried and convicted of criminal wrongdoing and were sentenced to federal prison time prior to deportation. The plant never financially recovered from the raid and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November. A bankruptcy auction that began on March 23 did not resolve disputes between potential buyers and creditors.

The bankruptcy trustee, Joseph Sarachek, is expected to appear before a federal judge this week to present either an amicable sale or alternative funding plan.

Karina Pilar Freund, a resident of Fayette, was convicted of one misdemeanor count of aiding and abetting a pattern or practice of hiring undocumented aliens. Documents filed on Dec. 9 with the court indicated that Freund, while employed in the human resources department at Agriprocessors, aided in the unlawful employment of such individuals, knowing that the people were not authorized to work in the U.S.

A sentencing date has not yet been determined, and Freund remains free on bond until that hearing. She faces a possible maximum sentence of six months in prison or a term of probation of not more than five years. She also faces a fine of up to $3,000 for each undocumented worker involved in the offense.

Fruend was one of five plant employees and members of management named in a Nov. 21 indictment. At that time she had already been facing charges for harboring undocumented aliens for profit, and the indictment added a charge of conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit. While the specific terms of the plea agreement she signed today in federal court have not yet been made public, it is likely that these charges will be dropped.

Laura Althouse, 38, who also worked in the human resources department at Agriprocessors, pleaded guilty on Oct. 29 to one count of conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens and one count of aggravated identity theft. The indictment of the five employees handed down in late November relied heavily on the testimony of Althouse and former plant supervisors Martin De La Rosa and Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza. They have also been convicted on charges related to immigration.

In addition to the federal charges, Freund and Althouse remain parties in a state criminal complaint that alleges more than 9,000 child labor law violations at the plant. Although Elizabeth Billmeyer, former manager at the Agriprocessors human resources department, has not yet been mentioned by the federal authorities, she is also named in the child labor law complaint that was filed in September by the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.

Agriprocessors, which filed in early November for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, only recently resumed limited poultry production at the Postville facility. A sister-site in Gordon, Neb. remains closed.

Karina Freund, 29, of Fayette, and Laura Althouse, 38, of Postville, are now scheduled for arraignment Sept. 24.

Althouse, now formally charged with aiding and abetting document fraud and aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft, worked in the human resources department and had duties related to payroll at Agriprocessors, according to court documents. The original complaint stated that on May 11, the day before Immigration and Customs Enforcment raided the plant, Althouse was in the plant and helping employess complete new job-related documents and applications with newly acquired false identities.

If convicted on all charges, Althouse faces a mandatory minimum sentence of two years and a possible maximum sentence of 12 years in prison, a $500,000 fine, a special assessment of $200 and four years of supervised release.

Freund is now formally charged with harboring and aiding and abetting the harboring of undocumented aliens. The original complaint filed with the court alleged that she worked in the human resource department and that several undocumented alien employees at Agriprocessors have implicated her in helpng them obtain falsified documents.

If convicted, Freund faces a possible maximum sentence of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, a special assessment of $100 and three years of supervised release.

Three other members of management at Agriprocessors have had complaints filed against them in federal court. Two of those cases resulted in plea bargains. The third complaint remains sealed while officials search for former plant supervisor Hosam Amara.

The company, Althouse, Freud and three other company officials — Aaron Rubashkin, Sholom Rubashkin and Elizabeth Billmeyer — face state charges on possible violation of child labor laws.

Those named in the court documents are:

• Abraham Aaron Rubashkin — principal owner and president of Agriprocessors, Inc.
• Sholom M. Rubashkin — Son of Aaron, manager of the slaughtering and meat packing plant at Postville and a company officer.
• Elizabeth Billmeyer — human resources manager of Agriprocessors, Inc. and a resident of Postville.
• Laura Althouse — management employee in the human resources department at Agriprocessors in Postville.
• Karina Freund — management employee in the human resources department at Agriprocessors in Postville.

A total of 9,311 child labor violations, involving 32 minors under the age of 18, are included in the court documents. Seven of the 32 minors were under the age of 16. The alleged violations range from September 2007 to May 12 of this year — the date of the massive federal immigration raid on the plant. All violations are simple misdemeanors, each punishable by up to 30 days in jail and/or a fine of $65 to $625.

An initial appearance has been scheduled before Iowa District Court Judge John Bauercamper for Sept. 17 in Allamakee County.

From the documents filed with the court:

“During the period of Sept. 9, 2007, through May 12, 2008, the persons as listed as employee-victims in the attached Complaint were employed and permitted to work at Agriprocessors’ slaughtering and meat packing establishment. All were under eighteen years of age on each of the dates listed. Throughout their employment these children were exposed to dangerous and/or poisonous chemicals, including, but not limited to, dry ice and chlorine solutions. Several of these employee-victims were also under sixteen years of age during the dates for which they are identified as such in the Complaint. Throughout their employment, these children, while under sixteen years of age, were employed in the operation of or tending of power-driven machinery, including, but not limited to, conveyor belts, meat grinders, circular saws, power washers, and power shears.”

The court documents also enumerate more than 1,500 violations relating to hours worked, including employee-victims under 16 who worked more than eight hours on specified days, and more than 40 hours in specified weeks. According to the affadavit, records indicate that there were instances of children under the age of 16 working before 7 a.m. and after 7 p.m. and, while school was in session, working more than four hours in a day and more than 28 hours in a week.

The Iowa Attorney General found that “all of the named individual defendants possessed shared knowledge that Agriprocessors employed undocumented aliens” and “that many of those workers were minors.”

Chaim Abrahams, plant manager at Agriprocessors, vehemently refutes the charges.

The breakdown of the charges are as follows:

• 3,857 violations of Iowa Code, section 92.8(9) — (“No person under 18 years of age shall be employed or permitted to work with or without compensation at any of the following occupations or business establishments: … Occupations in or about slaughtering and meat packing establishments and rendering plants.”
• 3,857 violations of Iowa Code, section 92.8(19) — “No person under 18 years of age shall be employed or permitted to work with or without compensation at any of the following occupations or business establishments: … Occupations involving exposure to lead fumes or its compounds, or to dangerous or poisonous dyes or chemicals.”
• 790 violations of Iowa Code, section 92.6(6) — “Persons 14 and 15 years of age may not be employed in: … Operation or tending of hoisting apparatus or of any power-driven machinery, other than office machines and machines in retail, food service, and gasoline service establishments which are specified in section 92.”
• 677 violations of Iowa Code, section 92.7 — “A person under 16 years of age shall not be employed with or without compensation, except as provided in sections 92.2 and 92.3, before the hour of 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m., except during the period from June 1 through Labor Day when the hours may be extended to nine p.m.  If such person is employed for a period of five hours or more each day, an intermission of not less than 30 minutes shall be given.  Such a person shall not be employed for more than eight hours in one day, exclusive of intermission, and shall not be employed for more than 40 hours in one week.  The hours of work of persons under 16 years of age employed outside school hours shall not exceed four in one day or 28 in one week while school is in session.”

A former supervisor at the Postville meatpacking plant raided by federal agents last month has fled the country, Iowa Independent has learned.

The supervisor, Hasom Amara, sometimes required workers to buy illicitly registered cars as a condition of work, three former workers have told the Iowa Independent. Their stories corroborate allegations first made by a federal immigration agent in the search warrant obtained for the May 12 raid at the Agriprocessors Inc. facility in which 389 workers were detained.

Such activities may have broken the law, immigration agent David Hoagland stated in a sworn affidavit in support of the search warrant used in the raid.

“There is probable cause to believe an Agriprocessors supervisor has assisted, for a cut of the proceeds, illegal aliens in obtaining false documentation in relation to purchasing vehicle, and thereby has aided in the harboring of illegal aliens,” Hoagland said.

The supervisor was identified only as “C” in the search warrant affidavit. In separate interviews, the three workers identified Amara, a 44-year-old supervisor at Agriprocessors, as the chief car salesman.

Amara left the United States and is now in Israel, according to five people in Postville who know him or his wife. These sources also confirmed that Amara’s wife did not travel immediately to Israel with her husband, but remained in Iowa to pack the family’s belongings. The sources asked their names not be published, citing a fear of retaliation from Agriprocessors.

The Postville plant, owned and operated by the Rubashkin family, is one the leading manufacturers of kosher food in the country. Members of the Rubashkin family have donated more than $120,000 to the Iowa Republican Party and Republican office holders in recent years and a smaller amount to Democratic Gov. Chet Culver and Lt. Gov. Patty Judge.

U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, a Democrat whose district includes part of Postville, has been the most vocal of Iowa’s federal delegation in calling for a full investigation of Agriprocessors. U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin has also called on federal officials to investigate the plant following the raid. U.S. Rep. Tom Latham, a Republican whose district includes the other portion of Postville, stopped short of calling for an investigation, but has proclaimed the immigration system “broken.” Several local residents have told news organizations that they have been called to testify before a grand jury, a sign that the company is under investigation.

Amara’s automobile business was common knowledge in Postville, according to former employees.

“Everyone knew that if you wanted better conditions — or even if you wanted a job at the plant — you bought a car from Hasom,”  a 26-year-old former worker from Mexico said in a taped interview. “Then you could get what you wanted.”

According to this man (who was not detained in the May 12 raid), a male relative, also from Mexico, came to Postville in search of work and was told no jobs were available.

“I spoke to him, and I said that I knew a way he could get a job,” the former worker recalled. “He told me that he knew what he had to do. He went to Hasom and, without asking for a job, said that he wanted to buy a car. Hasom asked him what car he wanted and, a day or two later, the car arrived.”

Only after the deal on the vehicle had taken place did the undocumented worker approach Amara about employment at the plant.

“When he went to pick up the car, he told Hasom that he’d really like a job at Agri, but that human resources had told him there were no jobs available,” the worker explained. “Hasom told him to come to Agri the next day and be ready to work. He did, and he started working that same day.”

Chaim Abrahams, a spokesman for Agriprocessors, declined to answer questions about Amara, stating in an e-mail that “the company is performing an independent investigation and will continue to cooperate with the government about this matter.”

The Iowa Department of Transportation began investigating possible document fraud involving vehicles owned by Agriprocessors employees in September 2005, according to Hoagland’s affidavit. One worker interviewed in the probe reported being told by other workers that “in order to get a favorable position in the plant” he or she “would have to purchase a car from the supervisor.”

In the interview with Iowa Independent, the former worker, who claimed to have begun his career at Agriprocessors as a teenager, said that he was approached “a couple of years ago” by the company’s human resources director, Elizabeth Billmeyer, and another member of plant management, who asked him explain “what was going on with the cars.”

“I told her and him exactly what I’m telling to you today,” the man said. “I told them that Hasom Amara was selling cars to workers in exchange for better treatment.”

He said he spoke out because of a belief that Amara would be punished for what he was doing.

“I was so stupid,” he added. “I thought he would get in trouble — maybe even get fired for what he was doing. That’s not what happened at all.”

A request for comment from Agriprocessors on Billmeyer’s involvement and knowledge of the car sales was acknowledged with the prepared statement of Abrahams that is quoted above.

In a separate interview, another former worker said he also spoke with Billmeyer and another company official about the car sales.

“I told them that the cars were junk and that the workers were paying too much,” said the man, a native of Guatemala who was not arrested in the May 12 raid. “I told them everything I knew about the cars because I wanted Hasom to be punished for what he was doing. I was angry. I’m still angry.”

A third former plant worker, a 20-year-old male, said he traveled with Amara to Cedar Rapids for the purpose of driving the vehicles into Postville for delivery to the workers.

“It wasn’t a dealership,” he said in a recorded interview through a translator. “We picked up the cars at a junk yard. The cars were not good — crap.”

The worker said he confronted Amara after driving the vehicle to Postville.

“I told him that I was going to turn him in because he was selling my people junk,” the man said. Amara’s response to this threat, if any, is unknown because Iowa Independent’s interview abruptly ended when the former worker’s attorney arrived.

DOT investigators audited a Cedar Rapids business, identified only as “dealership,” according to the search warrant affidavit, and determined that roughly 90 percent of the organization’s sales came from Postville residents. Investigators also determined that the Agriprocessors supervisor and “dealership” owner were friends.

In the affidavit, a confidential source described registering the cars in Burlington in southeastern Iowa using the addresses of friends. When the registration documents arrived, the source shipped them back to Postville. The source said he had done this more than 200 times.

Two of the former workers also corroborated a story reported by Postville radio station KPVL that employees of Agriprocessors were supplying undocumented workers with falsified documents. Both men said that they were paid in cash when they first started working for the company. After a few months, the workers were asked if they wanted a raise in pay. After the men agreed, they said they were given documents by Agriprocessors and then began to receive their pay by check.

“They knew from the beginning who and what we were,” one of the former workers said. “They didn’t care. They wanted us because we work hard and for not much money. They wanted us because we couldn’t complain.”

Spokesmen with the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Northern Iowa and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said they could not comment on questions about an ongoing investigation.