Posted on 04/21/2010 5:40:54 AM PDT by SJackson
Yes, we Jews unfortunately have our criminals. Yes, we Orthodox Jews unfortunately have our felons. We’re human, too.
At middle age I have come to accept my limitations. Although I like to have an opinion on almost everything, I am conscious of the fact that I am not a legal scholar and do not understand all the complexities of the criminal case against Sholom Rubashkin, former CEO of America’s largest kosher meat plant, Agriprocessors of Postville, Iowa.
But I am not a stupid man either. And I and a heck of a lot of other fairly intelligent and educated people are scratching our heads as to why government prosecutors are requesting that Rubashkin, who has 10 children, including an autistic son, and a reputation for enormous philanthropy, be given a life sentence in prison.
Life behind bars – the very words are ominous. Isn’t that reserved for society’s most heinous offenders? A life sentence has one conjuring images of rapists and murderers, international drug cartel kingpins and white-collar criminals guilty of gargantuan fraud, like Bernard Madoff.
What did Rubashkin do? After an INS raid on the plant that found hundreds of illegal immigrants, the company was pushed to the brink of bankruptcy and Rubashkin, who had already been arrested for employing illegals, was subsequently found guilty of defrauding a bank and producing false invoices to keep the business going. There is no insinuation that he did any of this for personal profit or gain. Unlike Madoff, he had no Hamptons estate, no fancy yacht and no Manhattan penthouse. By all accounts he and his family lived in incredibly modest circumstances.
Obviously, the Rubashkin story has been an enormous embarrassment to the American Jewish community in general and Orthodoxy in particular. The largest kosher meat plant in the country employing hundreds of illegal immigrants? Engaging in bank fraud to remain a going concern? Falsifying invoices and misleading lenders? These are serious charges that go against both terrestrial and celestial law and constitute actions that neither man nor God can condone. The expected flight of Jewish leaders and spokespeople from Rubashkin’s side ensued, whatever the injustice of his proposed sentence. We Jews are accustomed to run from scandal like the plague.
SO LET’S remove the smoke from this unsavory story and focus on truth.
Yes, we Jews unfortunately have our criminals. Yes, we Orthodox Jews unfortunately have our felons. We’re human, too. We have people guilty of serious wrongdoing. And we too must confess our sins, repent of our actions, are punished for our crimes and teach our children to always do better and never excuse our behavior.
Our community needs to know that no matter how important you believe it is for other Jews to eat kosher, you cannot purchase that mitzva at any price. You cannot be a good Jew if you are not an honest person. A religious obligation that comes through theft – even when the intention is to simply keep a business open so you can eventually pay off your loans – subverts all principles of religious morality.
Rubashkin is no hero. Whatever the nobility of his intentions, he is a poor example to religious youth. He has been found guilty of a crime and he must do the time.
But he is no monster either. Unlike Wall Street bankers, he did not bet the farm and other people’s deposits to buy himself a Ferrari. Unlike AIG executives, he did not cost the government billions in bailouts and then get a bonus. And while I, of course, understand that criminal conduct is infinitely more serious, so is prosecutorial overzealousness that borders on fanaticism.
The time that Rubashkin serves must be fair and just. This is America. Just as there is no room for toleration of criminal conduct, there is also no room for a lynch mob mentality. I realize I am not a lawyer. But I have enough sense to understand that a punishment of a few years in prison sets an unassailable example that criminal conduct is utterly inexcusable. Anything more than that for a crime of this nature gives the false impression that the American justice system is prejudicial and untrustworthy.
As for the outcry from the hassidic community that Rubashkin is being treated unfairly and that his yarmulke and beard make for a prosecutorial bull’s-eye, I love America too much to believe any of it. This is the fairest, most decent country on Earth. But I do believe it possible that when an overtly religious person perpetrates a crime – especially one that involves companies catering to religious needs – there is a feeling on the part of many that the hypocrisy mandates an even harsher sentence.
So let’s be clear.
This is not in any way analogous to other ugly religious stories dominating the news like pedophile priests. There is no suggestion that Rubashkin’s crimes be covered up. Less so is there any insinuation that Rubashkin be moved to another state where he can start up a new kosher meat plant. Rubashkin’s trustworthiness in the American Jewish community is finished.
But there is an insistence that he be treated like a human being. That it be taken into consideration that he has no prior offenses and that his company provided kosher meat to hundreds of thousands of people at affordable prices so that more Jews could observe their faith. That he and his family are legendary in the hassidic community for their charitable giving, their hospitality and their communal involvement. That Rubashkin himself devoted a substantial portion of his profits to funding a soup kitchen and supporting organizations like Kollel Chabad that feed the hungry and the poor. To disregard all these considerations when it comes to sentencing is to disregard the universal belief that the good we do is not cancelled out by our horrendous mistakes.
I know my own limitations. Perhaps Rubashkin’s prosecutors ought to know theirs.
An Israeli company has made an offer to buy the kosher meat producer Agriprocessors. The Israeli company, Soglowek Nahariya, made the offer in a filing Sunday with an Iowa bankruptcy court, the Des Moines Register reported.
Agriprocessors, once the country's largest producer of kosher meat, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November. The company had been on a steady downward spiral since May, when federal agents descended on the company's Postville slaughterhouse and arrested more than one-third of its workforce in what was at the time the largest single-site immigration raid in American history.
Joseph Sarachek, a bankruptcy trustee who is temporarily running Agriprocessors, was encouraged by the offer from Soglowek Nahariya, a leading producer of meat, poultry and vegetarian products with five plants in Israel and three logistics centers, according to its Web site. Sarachek cautioned that it would be a few months before any sale is complete.
Rabbi Boteach is 100% correct. Heat was attracted to Agriprocessors, Rabbi Rubashkin’s company, because of the complaints of PETA and others of alleged cruelty to animals in the kosher butchering process. Later Agriprocessors was accused of employing hundreds of illegal aliens.
Ultimately, the entire legal case was based on the fact that Agriprocessors had a revolving line of credit; that each time Agriprocessors drew down on the line it had to certify that it was in compliance with the law; that the company allegedly was not in compliance with the law (primarily because of hiring illegal aliens and booking phoney accounts receivable); and that therefore this was a federal case of bank fraud because the bank’s parent company was insured by the FDIC.
Rubashkin was a senior officer of Agriprocessors acting in his corporate capacity. None of the acts was alleged to have been done by him outside of his capacity as an officer of Agriprocessors.
At the beginning of the trial Rubashkin successfully moved for the illegal alien matter to be tried separately, in a separate trial. Yet the government made that the crux of its entire case, alleging that Agriprocessors was breaking the law by hiring them, Rubashkin signed general “bring-down” certificates to its bank that that the company was not in violation of any laws, and that therefore he committed bank fraud.
Rubashkin was denied the opportunity to show that the bank was not harmed. The judge wrote in her order that proof of harm is not necessary to prove bank fraud.
Rubashkin was denied the opportunity to show that individuals in the bank were aware that Agriprocessors had fraudulently written up the receivables.
Rubashkin was denied the opportunity to show that he had not profited personally from any of Agriprocessors’ or his own actions.
The number of counts for which he was convicted rose exponentially as the prosecutors charged him multiple times for offenses stemming out of the same actions: defrauding the bank; defrauding the bank through use of the wires (because he faxed his certificates); defrauding the bank through use of the mails (because he sent them by courier); defrauding the bank because he said that the company was not in violation of the law although it was in violation of the immigration laws; defrauding the bank because he said that the company was not in violation of the law although it was in violation of a law requiring payment for cattle by the close of the next business day after receipt of the cows (during a three-month period at the end he was late with some payments, and there is no allegation in the order that these payments were never made).
While some of this was properly excluded from the trial over his guilt, I think it is highly relevant to the question of his sentence.
I believe that Agriprocessors was guilty. Agriprocessors was ruined, and liquidated in bankruptcy. If Rabbi Rubashkin knew about illegal immigrants working at the company and if he deliberately falsified compliance certificates to the bank then the bank should sue him personally (and perhaps the government should join the bank derivatively). But there is no justification in the world to sentence him to a life sentence in a federal penitentiary based on the conviction that he received in this case.
Since sentencing is to take place April 28, 2010, time is of the essence in expressing concern about the abuse of the justice system in this case.
It’s not the “Rubashkin gang”. It’s Rabbi Sholom Rubashkin individually, the father of 10, including an autistic child, who the court is being asked to sentence to jail for THE REST OF HIS LIFE. Read the analysis of the case that I just posted. This is an abuse of the justice system.
If the prosecutor tries and convicts him on those other charges, then those sentences should add to his incarceration time.
The above applies to any American, any religion, no matter the perpetrator's extra-criminal character manifestations.
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OTOH, consistent application of a life sentence for hiring illegal aliens would go a long way toward shutting down the illicit job market that entices those criminal invaders to violate our borders.
Start with Rubashkin pour encourage les autres. Sweep the nation clean of offenders (including Nancy Pelosi?). Dry up the gravy train, and drive the invaders back where they came from!
An individual is threatened with being sent to jail for the rest of his life over this conviction. The hearing is scheduled for April 28, 2010. That is a huge rush.
The case was prosecuted by confessions and guilty pleas from his employees.
It would be useful to know what sentences similar circumstances have generated in the past, before judging if the prosecutors are too harsh.
He was offered a plea deal, but turned it down, choosing to go to trial, despite the mountains of evidence against him.
I have a hard time being sympathic, sorry.
Nobody is arguing that Rabbi Rubashkin was innocent. The issue is over the sentence that the prosecutors are seeking. A life sentence is outrageously disproportionate.
I don’t know what health violations you are discussing here. Agriprocessors was not charged with any such alleged violations, and as an aware consumer of kosher food I never heard of them.
Here is an article by a vegetarian “activist” about the conditions at Agriprocessors. Read and enjoy: http://www.resourcesforlife.com/docs/item2734
And what does this have to do with the prosecutor’s attempt to get the court to impose a life sentence on Sholom Rubashkin? Because you knew some Jews who ignored laws this individual should go to jail for the rest of his life based on conviction of these charges? Do you mean that all Jews from Europe, Asia and the Middle East are the same? I don’t even know that Rabbi Rubashkin was born outside of the US (he may have been; I just don’t know this).
I have no sympathy for them...that's what I'm saying.
I think the fraud and illegal alien stuff is MILD compared to what they did to the innocent public by selling them tainted food and calling it "kosher".
It's like hearing that a known meth-lab owner got a speeding ticket.
It appears he was offered a plea deal. He opted for a trial. He gambled and lost. Such is the American justice system today, with prosecutors' main objective being to clear their dockets and maximize their conviction rates.
That said, he gambled and lost. His main hope at this point is to tell the feds everything he knows about any illegal activity of anybody he knows.
You brought up the meth labs twice in your slam, boldfaced both times. I understand from other accounts that this was a false accusation that never re-emerged after the dust settled.
If it were true, it would have been prosecuted. This would have been a highly damning fact, and would have justified an extremely severe sentence as far as I am concerned.
Do you really think the prosecutors would have ignored that in their indictment?
The sale failed. I believe the company was liquidated.
Again, I don’t contest that the company was guilty and that he was an officer of the company. I do object strenuously to the prosecutors seeking a life term in jail, particularly as (a) the trial based on hiring illegal aliens was to be held separately from the trial alleging bank fraud and (b) Rubashkin was not permitted to prove that the bank was not harmed by his fraudulent compliance certificates.
It was a shock last week when the prosecutors indicated that they were going to seek a life sentence instead of a term of 20+ years.
The state (Iowa) alone fined them $182,000 in violations just in 2008 alone, and the safety violations involved workers getting "involuntary amputations" of various body parts. Worker safety was almost non-existent, so that had to go to extremes to find workers who would tolerate those conditions (illegals). They often refused to let inspectors into the plant, and would stall until they could get it "looking good".
He decided not to take a guilty plea because he believed he would be exonerated at trial. I don’t disagree with the guilty plea. I do think it is an appalling abuse of the justice system to seek a life sentence for him following conviction. I surmise that whoever advised him to fight had no idea that the prosecutors would seek such an abusive sentence for this man upon conviction.
Do you have any links to this information?
Were there more accidents/amputations in the Agriprocessors facilities than occurred in other slaughterhouses? (I’m not saying there weren’t; I don’t know, as I never saw this issue raised before).
If the facility was so unsafe, why wasn’t it shut down by the state of Iowa? Was such an action ever raised by the state?
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