Iowa City, IA – UPDATE: Judge Dismisses All Immigration Charges Against Rubashkin

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    Iowa City, IA – A federal judge has now dismissed all 72 charges of immigration violations against form Agriprocessor’s CEO Sholom Rubashkin.

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    Prosecutors filed a motion this morning to dismiss all 72 immigration charges against the former kosher slaughterhouse manager.

    The move came after Sholom Rubashkin’s conviction last week in federal court on financial fraud charges.

    Prosecutors filed the motion Thursday morning, one day after a bail hearing for Rubashkin. They say since Rubashkin already faces more than 1,200 years in prison for financial fraud, that would eclipse any time he would face for the immigration charges.

    Prosecutors also say the dismissal would avoid a long and costly trial.

    Rubashkin was found guilty by a federal jury on 86 of 91 counts of financial fraud. A sentencing date has not been set.

    Rubashkin was scheduled to go on trial for the immigration charges on Dec. 2 in Sioux Falls, S.D.


    Documents here


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    123 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Small nechama when he has the bank fraud to contend with. Lets hope and pray for a complete succesful appeal

    Yamamai
    Yamamai
    14 years ago

    Thanks but no thanks.

    Lo meduvshoch, V’lo Me’uktzock

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    i dont understand…hes still facing hundreds of years from his financial fraud charges…
    so wats the difference if he has 300 or 500 years???

    punch
    punch
    14 years ago

    was this done out of mercy?

    Dave
    Dave
    14 years ago

    Key question, are the charges being dismissed with or without prejuidice?

    (Dismissal without prejuidice means they can be refiled, with prejuidice means they cannot)

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    thats good news? or this means that he can’t come out for bail?

    Aharon
    Aharon
    14 years ago

    So what do you say about the prosecutors now? They removed it as they are supposed to do ethically.

    Yankel
    Yankel
    14 years ago

    But…but….but…I thought they’re all anti-Semites who are out to torment poor Reb Sholom to the very outer limits. Of course the Rubashkin apologists will twist this too into some kind of nefarious conspiracy.

    Sam
    Sam
    14 years ago

    Keep the prayers coming!!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    I thought he was found not guilty on the livestock payment charges.

    Charlie Hall
    Charlie Hall
    14 years ago

    This is good. The financial fraud charges represented serious violations of Chosen Mishpat and are things no frum Jew should ever even consider doing. But had a non-Jew smuggled Yiddish-speaking illegal immigrants into the US to work in his sweatshop in 1940, we’d now been hailing him as a hero and honoring him in Yad VaShem. Except for dina malchutcha dina, and I’m not even sure that applies here, there shouldn’t be any issur in hiring illegal immigrants. Jews have always benefitted from open borders and we should be hospitable to the people fleeing poverty and violence in Mexico and Central America rather than acting like Sodomites.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    baruch hashem for good news.
    ribono shel olam, please keep the good news coming.
    thank you.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    this is what i think, the prosecutors are not looking out for rubashkin they are looking out for themselves, they are afraid that he might be acquited on the immigration cgarges because he rejected hiring their informant several times with his fake papers, if his lawyers have a good day in court and they can get him off the hook on the illegal hiring then it makes a hole in their financial fraud case because they brought that in to show that he violated loan covenants with the bank and will become a very strong basis for appeal.

    Dag
    Dag
    14 years ago

    Great move by the Feds. It negates the Anti-Semitism claim

    True Justice
    True Justice
    14 years ago

    so look at what happened here: they arrested an alleged ‘evil’ guy for ‘massive’ immigration fraud and mistreatment of workers.

    then the found ‘massive’ money fraud and totally forgot about this evil illegal immigrant abuser…

    by the way, did you ever overstate you annual income on a credit card application? even in your younger days? this makes YOU as evil as R’ SMR.
    even if he inflated the numbers, the bank was happy to give him the loan and collect the large monthly interest payments – this is how banks make money – interest.

    SMR was making the proper payments, and had every intention of continuing to do so. so who did SMR hurt by this so called fraud? does this justify years in prison? was there ANY evidence presented that he was inflating numbers to STEAL money from the bank? to cheat them of their money? what makes him the devil? where is justice?

    there are the famous ponzi scheme artists and enron etc – THEY committed their acts for personal gain and with every intention of defrauding their ‘clients’ – who were never going to get back their ‘capital’. CAN YOU COMPARE THIS? is SMR another Bernie Madoff???

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    they are obviously confident enough that the sentencing will be so severe that they dont need to waste money on trying him further.
    and the flipside of this is, that if he were to be tried then it may lead to relooking at the first trial and this can undo the harm theyve inflicted, or justice they achieved.
    depends how you view it.

    so whichever way they are looked at its for their possible gains that they are acting the way they do.

    hashem should help him and his family and all of us, none can stand against judgment that takes nothing but strict law or “din” into account. we need “rachamim” to survive.
    may he get loads of shefa and rachamim.
    an absolute sad chapter from beginning to end.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    this is a sort of “kam lay m’dirabah minay” i.e. he is getting punished for the bigger items.

    as the article says, the immigration charges are “eclipsed” by the fraud charges. he is NOT being found innocent of the alleged immigration offenses. they are just not going to go to trial on something that is already being taken care of by the conviction on the 86 counts of bank fraud, money laundering, etc.

    as the saying goes, “Do the crime, Do the time.”

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Usual procedure. There is no point in going to the expense and waste of time of a trial on the lesser charges when there are already 86 convictions for financial fraud which will carry a lengthy jail term. The original charges had nothing to do with anti-semitism neither does this decision. Both were simple prosecutorial decisions based on the facts. The ‘Feds’ are not looking to show they are nice guys. What Rubashkin’s lawyers had better do now is to file appeals so that they can seek to keep their client out on bil pending the appeals. His application to remain out on bail pending the immigration trial has now been flushed away.

    Not so good...
    Not so good...
    14 years ago

    I don’t think this is good news. He was trying to go out on bail UNTILL the next trial. But now that there WON”T BE a next trial, why should they let him out?! Hashem must help him now. Please Daven……

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    what is the difference from 500 yer to 150 yer.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Maybe the government figures that he will be going to prison anyway, why waste government time and money on another trial if it wont change anything.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    The gov. knows they will loose on this one

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    did you all see the report today the there is a 50% drop in enforcment of illegal workers raids , this is obama showing the usa that he is not serious in charging and going after employees who hire illegals , and now that they got the conviction , he has nothing to lose by dropping the charges

    Big Masmid
    Big Masmid
    14 years ago

    Hodoo L’aShem Ke Tov ……..

    Shaul in Monsey
    Shaul in Monsey
    14 years ago

    This is really bad news for Hecht and the Yated who claim this is a blood libel fueled by anti semitism and concocted evidence. They must be really disappointed. No true anti semite would have dismissed anything.

    Clearly the feds are confident that the sentence SMR receives as a convicted felon on 86 counts of fraud will serve the interests of justice, and they are right. This also shows what an awful job Guy “The Cooker” Cook did as defense counsel. They returned not guilty on 5% of the charges. Letting SMR testify was a disaster.

    Can anyone get a message to SMR that showing a little remorse to the judge is his only hope in helping himself get less than 20 years? Check the record. Enron, Skilling, 24 years. Worldcom, Ebbers, 25 years.

    4, Dave, the motion is to dismiss without prejudice so that “criminal charges…could be reinstated based upon a change of circumstances or a reevaluation of present circumstances..

    12, He’s a convicted felon, he’s going to do hard time. Accept it. Federal appeals are successful in so few cases that if you’re counting on that, you might as well quit work and by lottery tickets as well.

    Peretz
    Peretz
    14 years ago

    There still is a double standard. Ever since regulators stopped doing their jobs beginning in the late 1970’s people of all stripes have been able to get away with lots of things in the name of “economic growth” which they couldn’t do in the 1950’s — hedge funds, derivatives, etc.

    It is part of the reason why Inequality in this country is at 1920’s levels.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    people people poeple. this is a bracha and a yeshua. say thank you and shut up

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    i knew he was a tzaddik. now all we have to do is win on appeal of those 86/91 charges and we are good.

    Dave
    Dave
    14 years ago

    Charges were dismissed without prejuidice.

    This means that they could be refiled at some point in the future, but are unlikely to be. Should the bank fraud charges be reversed on appeal (something which is admittedly unlikely), I would expect to see the government refile the immigration charges.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    its amazing how madoof who stole 60 billion get 150 year

    And he gets 1200 years!!
    Let’s keep davening maybe if they go to retrail for the fraud charges it will be dropped.
    Yeshuas hashem keraf ein
    !!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Who exactly are they fooling with this pathetic move? Thier viciousness and cruelty have been proven from day 1 in this case. This phony gesture on thier part is not
    fooling anyone. I hope not at least.

    Thanks For Nothing, as they say……

    OMG
    OMG
    14 years ago

    Thank God, at least we would not hear that devastating testimony

    money
    money
    14 years ago

    It all boils down to money, there trying to save themselves money for another trial that’s not necessary.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Wow, this character probably set a record in U.S. criminal law history if he qualified for 1,200 years in prison. He beats, Madoff, Enron, Ted Bundy and Paris Hilton. The D.A. must feel very confident enough with sentencing expectation from the judge to not pursue further charges.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    this is a change in white house policy.
    a message from the top, Obama, don’t dig in the imigration issue, its not a friendly issue with my base.
    don’t pursue a case that was started under the Bush era….

    OMG
    OMG
    14 years ago

    Upon reflection I don’t think that this dismissal was the best outcome for SMR even although when you hear it is sounds like the best news SMR could hope for, but after a few minutes I see ulterior motive, the prosecution cut off the only reasonable argument what SMR has on appeal, you need to understand that the appeals court doesn’t look at the facts of the case they always presume that the Jury came to the proper conclusion, what they look at is how the Judge ruled during the trial, did she admitted illegal evidence, i.e. testimony or material, invoice etc. during the trial itself which was illegal and if yes was that testimony so prejudicial that the Jury had to convict the defendant, and I believed that they only ruling from the Judge which might be overturned on appeal would be the testimony on the illegal’s to support the charge of fraud to the bank, just looking at that ruling there could be an argument that although he was not charged in the trial with the immigration counts but the knowledge by the Jury that they illegally hired and supplied these illegal’s with documentation is enough that he couldn’t get a fair trial, as the Judge ruled that the fraud and immigration issue should be divided. Now that there is no more the immigration trial, the defends will have a tougher time to convince the appellate court.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    There are still child labor law violations to be faced. These are State of Iowa violations and involve considerable jail time. It will be interesting to see if these get dropped if SMR is sentenced to serious jail time in Federal court.

    bprebbetzin
    bprebbetzin
    14 years ago

    You never know….this might just b the beginning of the light at the end of the tunnel

    OMG
    OMG
    14 years ago

    Part # 2
    But when you lay blame on Judge Reddy sorry I don’t see it your way, first of all I am trying to find the original Judges order to see if it was Judge Reddy I could not located it so far, so I am not so sure that she even did sign off on the raid, but even if she did, I don’t see anything wrong with any Judge’s order, A Judges sole function is to be the arbitrator what is according the law and what is not, and in my view the Judge applied the law properly when the Judge (whoever it is) signed off the raid, reason as follows, I came across the original affidavit signed by David M Hoagland, senior agent with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, it is 57 pages long, I don’t want to repeat for a hour point after point, but after reading it, I came to the conclusion that the Judge didn’t have any other choice but to permit the raid. I only hope that some of the boggler would understand that we are not evil Jews we just believe in justices, and if one of our gets entangled, he should know that sometimes a plea would be the best approach, and complaining about the system that it is corrupt and bias because he is a Jew, is counterproductive, from my experience the FBI read the blogs to gage the communities view. And we don’t want them to believe that we are against law and order

    OMG
    OMG
    14 years ago

    I AM REPLYING TO THE POST # 145 FROM THE RUBASKIN AWAITS BAIL STORY
    Nov 14, 2009 as the page is almost gone I appreciate our discussion
    Part # 1
    I am as much appalled by the blatant miscarriage of Justices by the Bush Justice Department as anyone on this blog. My view is that as the firing of the District Attorneys and the outing of an CIA agent, was politically motivated, and the people in the Bush administration got away with illegal shenanigans because the Congress was of the same party, and when the Democratic party took over they were more interested in winning the next election, then pursuing the misdeeds of the Bush administration, just to finalize my point that everybody will acknowledge that in 2007 when the Justices Department was investigating Agri the hot photo of the day was illegal emigration, where Bush and McCain pushed for a solution for the 12M illegal’s and the people on the right were up in arms, so the Justices decided to show their base that they are tough on illegal’s, so we are in agreement on that point, now as much I hate that they got away with this political raid but it is not different then they got away with weatherboarding, and exposing a covert CIA operative and firing District Attorneys for pure political reasons, and finally they turned the Justices Department into a political extension to the White House,

    mendel
    mendel
    14 years ago

    Unfortunately, I feel that this is an attempt to have the judge be stricter on Sholom in regards to the fraud case. ( I really hope that I am wrong.)
    I feel that this was also the intent of bringing up a violation that was never used to charge anyone ( not paying for livestock within twenty four hours.) It is human nature for the jury to be self righteous.To say that I have fully examined the case, and have even found that they are not as bad as the persecution is making him/her out to be. When charges are exaggerated, the jury can see themselves as being righteous to the extent that they have even acquitted the fellow with regard to certain charges. It thereby causes the jury not to look with the proper scrutiny at the other charges.

    Shaul in Monsey
    Shaul in Monsey
    14 years ago

    Could any of you blind followers please explain why invoices were cut from AGRI to a clothing store? Or why AGRi had accounts pay the bank accounts that belonged to the yeshiva and grocery? Or why they took prepayments for orders and did not ship them? These facts are undisputed and they are the real crimes here. It’s so funny to listen to everyone kvetch about ridiculous legal theories they know nothing about but when it comes to these facts you ignore them.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    He was wrong but that is what is going on today every major corporation falifies financial statements to raise the stock prices and to get credit lines. On a similar note every one on boro park and flatbush who took a mortgage and stated their income alot higher or stated higher income on a crerdit card application is doing the same cheating and lying but on a smaller money scale. so before ayone judges him look at your credit card application and see if it really matches your income then read the fine print how knowingly providing false information can lead to prison

    OMG
    OMG
    14 years ago

    Go to the top of this thread see link document, left click on your mouse twice, scroll (you could scroll either by the round thing in the middle of the mouse, or you could put your cursor on the right edge of the document and pull down slowly the little bar and keep an eye on the bottom left you will see numbers, that is page number) to page 3 read row 2-8 and you would see for yourself, and no, this motion is true that is what the jury found at trial, and you think you understand the law maybe you could learn a blat gamorh, but for sure you don’t understand the law.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Please watch what you say.

    The sentencing will now proceed as soon as possible. People on VIN are saying vile things about the judge. On the Internet, everyone can have an alert set up on Google when anyone says something about their name.

    For heaven’s sake.

    Stop calling the judge names!

    Stop saying the judge is an anti-semite.

    Pirkei Avot warns about this.

    To all the SMR supporters, do you think you are helping him by saying terrible things about the judge.

    In her mind she’ll say, “Now I’ll show them.”

    Just don’t do it.

    Now is the time to write letters asking for mercy from the judge.

    The fight is OVER. SMR lost. He is likely to lose the appeal.

    Put away midas hadin and take out midas harachamim.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    After reading the prosecutions application for dismissal of immigration charges, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize that the prosecutors made gross tactical and critical errors in the way they worded their request for leave and dismissal. as if they intended to serve the defense grounds for appeal on a silver platter. The immigration testimony in the financial fraud trial was not a slam dunk, questions linger about that strategy, to write that the jury already convicted smr of harboring illegal aliens hence there is no need for a further trial was suicidal on the states part. These words are gonna raise red flags when scrutinized and may come back to haunt the prosecution.

    Justice Seeker
    Justice Seeker
    14 years ago

    1) The court did not dismiss the immigration charges against SMR. They were withdrawn by the prosecution – for now. This was allowed by the court.
    2) No one should have to spend the rest of their life in jail. But Reb Rubashkin did terrible things that hurt many, many people, Jews and non-Jews. Many have suffered because of him, and many more including his wife and children will continue to suffer. Life is not a game of Monopoly. It is for real. You do not pass Go and collect $200.if you lie and cheat. You go to jail and a throw of the dice will not get you out.