Rubashkin Convicted of Fraud

By JTA November 13, 2009

A jury convicted Sholom Rubashkin, the former owner of an Iowa kosher slaughterhouse, of 86 out of 91 fraud charges.

The 12-person jury decision on Thursday in Sioux Falls, S.D. likely means that Rubashkin, 50, will spend the rest of his life in prison; combined sentences could reach over 1,250 years.

Federal authorities launched investigations into the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa after a May 2008 immigration raid. The jury took four days to deliberate after a month-long trial, and convicted him on a range of fraud charges, money laundering and failing to pay his suppliers. Rubashkin’s lawyers had argued that he was an incompetent businessman.

The trial was moved to South Dakota after an Iowa judge agreed that the juror pool had been prejudiced by media coverage.

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