United States Attorney’s Office
Northern District of Iowa
United States Attorney Stephanie M. Rose
PRESS RELEASE
For further information contact:Bob TeigFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE(319) 363-6333Date:June 22, 2010Cedar Rapids, Iowa
SHOLOM RUBASHKIN SENTENCED TO 27 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON
The former CEO of Agriprocessors, Inc. was sentenced today to 27 years infederal prison.Sholom Rubashkin, age 50, from Postville, Iowa, received the prison term after November 12, 2009, jury verdicts finding him guilty of 86 counts of financial fraud andrelated offenses.Evidence at trial showed Rubashkin inflated Agriprocessors’ sales in order tofraudulently obtain millions of dollars in loans that were not backed by any collateral.Rubashkin also diverted millions of dollars in customer payments that were supposed togo to Agriprocessors’ primary lender. He committed money laundering by running tensof millions of dollars through bank accounts at a Postville grocery store and a religiousschool. The trial evidence showed Rubashkin was personally involved in harboringhundreds of undocumented worker at Agriprocessors and illegally delaying payments to Agriprocessors’ cattle suppliers. He paid for the purchase of fabricated IDs for undocumented workers and personally inspected those documents. Evidence showedRubashkin’s fraud resulted in over $26 million in actual loss to Agriprocessors’ lenders.Over a two-year time period when money was being fraudulently obtained from alender, Rubashkin funneled about $1.5 million from Agriprocessors’ accounts to hispersonal bank accounts. The money was used, in part, to pay approximately $300,000on his credit card bills, approximately $200,000 for a portion of the remodeling of hisresidence, approximately $76,000 for his personal state and federal income tax,approximately $41,000 for his mortgage payments on his personal residence,approximately $25,000 for jewelry, approximately $20,000 for sterling silver, $1,245 per month for life insurance, and $365 per month for his car payment.“Sholom Rubashkin expended enormous efforts to hide his many crimes from thepublic and law enforcement. On top of that, there have been orchestrated efforts tospread false information intended to elicit sympathy for him. It is a tragedy that manypeople were misled by this misinformation calculated to distract the public from thetruth. The truth came out at trial and sentencing,” said United States AttorneyStephanie M. Rose. “No one won anything today as the damage caused by Mr.Rubashkin cannot be fully tallied. However, today the house of cards he constructedfinally was brought down. When something is built on lies, it should be no surprisewhen it collapses under the weight of those lies.”-more-
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