New immigration charges filed against Rubashkin
By GRANT SCHULTE • gschulte@dmreg.com • May 15, 2009

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Federal prosecutors today filed a 142-count criminal indictment against former managers at Agriprocessors Inc., the struggling Postville slaughterhouse, and increased the number of immigration charges against former plant executive Sholom Rubashkin.

Rubashkin and his former plant now face 71 counts of harboring undocumented aliens for profit, according to the indictment. Prosecutors also dropped federal identity-theft allegations in the wake of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that undermined those charges.


The indictment names Rubashkin, the plant itself, and three former managers as defendants in an alleged scheme to harbor illegal immigrants, defraud creditors, falsify documents and defy a 2002 order from the U.S. secretary of agriculture.

Rubashkin’s lawyer, Guy Cook, said his client will plead not guilty to all charges.

Bob Teig, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office, said each new immigration charge was filed in connection to an individual immigrant who was harbored at the plant for financial gain.

The amended indictment comes little more than a year after federal agents raided the kosher meat plant and arrested 389 suspected illegal immigrants. Most operations have since ceased at Agriprocessors, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to shield itself from creditors.

The new indictment, the sixth filed since October 2008, replaces a 79-count indictment issued in March. Rubashkin’s trial is scheduled for Sept. 9 in U.S. District Court.

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