Posted to Jewish News on
By Lynda Waddington for the Iowa Independent

Government asserts that Rubashkin aided flight of Agriprocessors co-worker to Israel

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade has ordered that the Iowa meatpacking manager found guilty on 86 counts of fraud and money laundering will remain behind bars.

Judge Rules – Rubashkin to Remain Behind Bars

By Lynda Waddington for the Iowa Independent

Government asserts that Rubashkin aided flight of Agriprocessors co-worker to Israel

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade has ordered that the Iowa meatpacking manager found guilty on 86 counts of fraud and money laundering will remain behind bars.

Sholom M. Rubashkin, who served as the day-to-day manager at Agriprocessors in Postville and is the son of company founder A. Aaron Rubashkin, will remain in the custody of U.S. Marshals until he is sentenced on the earlier conviction. It is unknown if Rubashkin, who recently had 72 immigration-related offenses against him dismissed, will remain in a county facility or will be moved to a federal prison. An exact sentencing date has not yet been established, and, since the process requires extensive reports for judicial review, the date could be several weeks from now.

In the bail hearing on Wednesday, the Rubashkin defense team pointed to the man’s strong community and family ties in Postville as well as his record of good behavior while on release pending trial. Prosecutors, on the other hand, told the court that the fact that Rubashkin was facing a sentence of possibly several hundred years in prison that the situation had changed significantly.

In addition, the prosecution called Mike Fischels, a special agent who has long been assigned to the Agriprocessors case, to testify about an overseas telephone conversation he had with a company supervisor still wanted by the government.

Fischels testified that he spoke with co-defendant Hosam Amara on the telephone about Amara’s flight from the U.S. to Israel. Amara indicated to Fischels that [Rubashkin] told him to leave the U.S. and return to Israel in order to remove himself from the situation facing Agriprocessors.

The government also presented a copy of a check and bank documents that suggest Rubashkin provided financial assistance to Amara around the time that he fled the U.S.

The court finds that the government’s evidence for detention is compelling.
Defendant’s actions prior to and during the pendency of the instant action, when coupled with the powerful incentive to flee due to the jury’s return of the Verdicts, demonstrates that Defendant poses a flight risk. The court notes that, in the Detention Order, it previously found that Defendant posed a flight risk.

The court acknowledges the overwhelming support that Defendant’s community has provided during the trial and the instant proceeding. The court also recognizes that Defendant took great pains to comply with the terms of his pretrial release. The court agrees that Defendant has shown he is committed to his family and to his community. Nevertheless, the court finds that this evidence does not rise to the “clear and convincing” level necessary to show that he is “not likely to flee [. . .] if released under [§] 3142(b) or(c).” 18 U.S.C. § 3143(a). Accordingly, the court shall grant the Motion.

Rubashkin’s defense team has pledged to appeal the fraud and money laundering convictions. It is unknown at this time, however, if they will also appeal this detention order.

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32 Comments

  • ad mosai!!

    judge= a yemach shemum
    beezrat hashem this reb sholom mordechai will be released all you continue praying for such a good man!!1

  • shocking

    after all the letters we sent, after all our tefilos, this is what he gets?

    hopefully the case will be appealed and it’ll all be over

  • Yisrael Btach BaHashem

    If the manager is israeli then why shouldn’t he return to his country?
    SM is a US citizen and his family is here. how can they compare the two?

  • ??????????????

    how long does he need to remain behind bars? it never says any thing. i thought it was supposed to be decided on Wednesday?
    someone please answer

  • Crownhieghtser

    Oy Rebbe ! Please all Reb SHOlolm Mordechais good deeds and his families good deeds should bring him a complete Yeshuah! Can’t wait to here good news! Moshiach NOw!

  • PLEASE READ AND JOIN

    SMR was makpid with melave malka, lets each do it in his zechus. we can also split the tehillim in his zechusdaily, anyone willing to say some everyday, please post, hopefully we can say whole thing, i can have 1-35 covered among 3 friends, please post, in order, even if its just 1!

  • Big brother is watching

    Remember we are living in the new age of big brother. They are able through technology to see and find all. Financial transfers, credit card transactions, easy pass movements, cell phone records, you name it and they know it.

    The wise will learn from the Rubaskin debacle.

  • Hershel

    Motzie asirim upode anavom veozer dallim veone leamo Yisroel be’ais shavom ailov,We beseech you to show your steghnth and cause a ruach of chesed to prevail in order that Sholom Mordechai should be set free.

  • Judge = communist Russia

    This is excatly what they russians did to Yidden who provided Kosher food
    Just with a different language of convictions

  • Done

    This is why the 72 charges were dropped, so there would be no upcoming trial, so no need for him to be released on bail, giving him no chance to leave the country.He will stay in jail now until sentencing and then be taken immediatly to a Federal Prison. The testimony of the “Supervisor” from Israel along with the paper trail connecting the two finished any chance of bail.

  • another for Tehillim

    i will take 41-45 daily, adding on to the above posters. as well i’ve dedicated all my mitzvos to his & his family’s zechus to see them through.

  • Asking the Obvious

    Why aren’t any of our own Chabad criminal lawyers (from all over the world)involved in the defence team?

  • AH

    I’ll take 49-54 daily.

    And like the Rebbe Maharash, who received word, as he finished Kapitel 54 (“ki mikol tzoroh hitziloni, uve’oyvai ro’asoh eini”), that a viciously anti-Semitic Russian minister had dropped dead and that the Jews of Russia were thereby saved from a terrible gezeirah (Kovetz Michtovim in the back of Tehillim, p. 201), may we have the zechus to see Sholom Mordechai’s salvation quickly!

  • Tehillim poster

    i’ve been saying mine, regardless. i actually asked if they would make a special post about the Tehillim, as perhaps more people would see it and respond.

  • yoseef

    there are a lot of anti semites in courts and those who testefied against shalom they’ll celabrate their funural as soon as possible

  • Justice Seeker

    It seems to me that the many good deeds this man did for his community were funded by the bad deeds he did in the business world.The many charges of fraud and money laundering were shocking, but the plight and suffering of the agri workers was appalling, and that suffering did not begin with the raid.

  • Avi

    Hopefully, with da aibishtas helfen, the following case that happened in GERMANY no less with inspire the judge to leniency

    A German bank employee who secretly transferred money from rich to poor clients has been given a –>>22-month suspended prison term <<—.

    The 62-year-old woman, dubbed the ‘Robin Hood Banker’, moved more than $11m (£7m) in 117 transfers.

    The court in Bonn was told that the employee, who has not been named, took no money for herself.

    The bank made a loss of more than $1.5m (£1m) when poor customers were unable to pay back unauthorized overdrafts.