Stories

A video featuring Rosa Weiss, daughter of Sholom Rubashkin, is circulating throughout the Jewish community in an effort to raise funds to offset legal fees associated with the case that stemmed from the May 2008 Agriprocessors immigration raid.

The troubled Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville will probably be sold to a company with ties to a Montreal-based businessman.
After an auction in bankruptcy court this afternoon, SHF Industries LLC., a new Iowa corporation tied to Canadian businessman Hershey Friedman, remains the only bidder for the bankrupt kosher meatpacker.

U.S. District Judge Linda Reade ruled today that federal immigration and financial charges against Sholom Rubashkin were improperly joined, granting a request from the former Agriprocessors executive that paves the way for two separate trials.

The man appointed by the Postville City Council to serve as interim mayor accepted campaign contributions totaling more than $2,000 from members of the Rubashkin family, who founded and operated the beleaguered Agriprocessors meatpacking plant, site of a massive 2008 immigration raid.

A former Agriprocessors beef supervisor was sentenced today in federal court to three years in prison. The news comes on the same day that a former plant human resources employee pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraudulent immigration statement charges.

A federal judge ruled today that trials for Agriprocessors, a former executive and a former supervisor do not need to be displaced from Iowa in order to assure justice wields an even hand.

A federal judge ruled Friday that criminal indictments stemming from the May 2008 immigration raid at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville won’t be dismissed because they were not the result of antisemitism.
“The court finds Defendants have not met their heavy burden,” U.S. District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade wrote in her order. “The court [...]

A 43-year-old man who worked as a poultry line supervisor at Agriprocessors during the massive May 2008 immigration raid was sentenced Tuesday on immigration-related charges.
Martin De La Rosa-Loera, of Postville, received the prison term after pleading guilty Aug. 27 to one count of aiding and abetting the harboring of undocumented aliens.

Three property management companies that are affiliated with the family that owns the bankrupt Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant have also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The Rubashkin family has filed paperwork with the state to stop possible administrative dissolutions of at least four corporate entities it owns, including the beleaguered Agriprocessors plant in Postville.