Raid and Arrests
On May 12, 2008, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security agents raided the plant and arrested 389 workers who lacked documentation. At that time, it was the largest raid into a workplace in the United States.
On October 30, 2008, one day after the Iowa labor commissioner fined Agriprocessors $10 million for wage violations, Rubashkin was arrested on federal conspiracy charges of harboring illegal immigrants and aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft. Federal officials claimed that Rubashkin intentionally helped illegal workers obtain false documentation. After making an initial court appearance, he was released the same day on $1 million appearance bond after agreeing to wear an ankle monitor that tracks his movement, to limit his travel to northern Iowa, and to surrender his and his wife's passport.
Rubashkin was arrested again on November 13, 2008, at his Postville home on federal charges of bank fraud. The charges claimed that under his direction, millions of dollars that were supposed to be deposited in an account as collateral for a loan were fraudulently diverted to another account, and were used to fraudulently increase the value of Agriprocessors accounts receivable. After the money was diverted, Rubashkin allegedly ordered the records of these transactions removed from company computers. The charges carried up to 30 year prison terms.
Rubashkin was denied release on bail on November 20, 2008 following Magistrate Judge Jon Scoles determination that he poses a flight risk. Scoles not only took into consideration that searching Rubashkin's house, federal agents had found a bag with $20,000 in cash, several silver coins and passports but also Israel's “Law of Return,” which grants automatic citizenship to every Jew and members of his family upon immigration. The successful use of an argument based on Israel's Law of Return has caused concern among Jewish communities who fear that such claims could be used to deny bail to Jews in general.
The ruling was reversed by District Court Judge Linda Reade on January 27, 2009. Rubashkin was released on $500,000 bond and ordered to surrender his birth certificate, his and his family's passports and agree to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet. He was not allowed to leave Allamakee County, nor was he allowed on any of Agriprocessors’ property and was barred from having contact with potential witnesses.
Read more about this topic: Sholom Rubashkin
Famous quotes containing the words raid and/or arrests:
“John Brown and Giuseppe Garibaldi were contemporaries not solely in the matter of time; their endeavors as liberators link their names where other likeness is absent; and the peaks of their careers were reached almost simultaneously: the Harper’s Ferry Raid occurred in 1859, the raid on Sicily in the following year. Both events, however differing in character, were equally quixotic.”
—John Cournos (1881–1956)
“On our streets it is the sight of a totally unknown face or figure which arrests the attention, rather than, as in big cities, the strangeness of occasionally seeing someone you know.”
—For the State of Vermont, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)