Sholom Rubashkin Editorial at the NLJ

The National Law Journal has an editorial by Robert Steinbuch and Brett Tolman bringing us up to date on Sholom Rubashkin's case which I covered extensively here on Bad Lawyer. 

This terrific essay from a law professor, Steinbuch, and former US Attorney, Tolman, captures perfectly my sense of the personal tragedy, legal and moral injustice that occured with the incaceration on Mr. Rubashkin and the miscarriage of justice in a prosecution tainted by inflammatory immigration charges.  Charges Mr. Rubashkin was acquitted of by a federal jury.

This is a case, where I think President Obama should seriously consider exercising his remarkable prerogatives to right wrongs.

More on Rubashkin's de facto Life Sentence

The Des Moines Register reports on the US Attorney's arguments supporting the 27 year sentence Sholom Rubashkin received for his financial fraud convictions.  Grant Schulte reports:

"Sholom Rubashkin deserves the prison time he received Tuesday in federal court, prosecutors said after a judge sentenced the former eastern Iowa meatpacking executive to 27 years. Bob Teig, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, said the massive financial fraud scheme at Agriprocessors Inc. 'cries out for a sentence like this.'

Rubashkin, 50, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids and ordered to pay $27 million in restitution to banks and a cattle provider caught in the scheme.

Rubashkin was convicted of 86 fraud-related federal crimes in November, for his part in an effort to defraud the plant's lenders to collect advances on a loan. The plan collapsed after a May 2008 raid at the Postville plant that forced the owners to file for bankruptcy. Prosecutors, who have seldom spoke publicly since the immigration raid, said the fraud case ranked among the largest ever in Iowa's northern district.

'It is a lengthy sentence,' Teig said. 'But he earned a lengthy sentence. It's hard to get a 27-year sentence for a white-collar crime. It is very difficult.'  Teig said Rubashkin's crimes differed from other high-profile, white-collar cases with lesser sentences because of his actions. U.S. District Judge Linda Reade concluded in her ruling that Rubashkin led the fraud, involved others in the plot and lied at his trial. Teig said Rubashkin consistently refused to cooperate with authorities.

Assistant U.S Attorney Peter Deegan Jr., one of three prosecutors in the case, said financial crimes kept surfacing as investigators dug into the plant's books. Rubashkin's money laundering through a local school and grocery store hindered but did not stop the investigation, he said.

'You've got such a wide range of criminal activity here,' Deegan said. 'The case just kept building, and building, and building. Every time you turned over another rock, there was another crime being committed - and usually, it led to Sholom Rubashkin.'

Defense lawyers vowed to appeal, and railed against the sentence in a press conference with at least 100 of Rubashkin's Orthodox Jewish supporters Several in the group toted signs in front of the television cameras. One sign read: '27 years for overstating assets? That makes sense? OMG!'  'While this may appear to be the end of the case, it is not,' defense lawyer Guy Cook said. "It is indeed the beginning of the case. It's round one, if you will.'

Bob Barr, a former Georgia congressman who joined Rubashkin's legal team for the appeal, said the sentence was 'unjust, unnecessary, and unreasonable."

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I hear an animus in the expressions of the US prosecutors when they discuss Sholom Rubashkin's prosecution and de facto prison sentence that I find tragic. 

Here is a guy who committed financial crimes trying to keep open a religious foods business.  I know how awful it feels in business to struggle to keep the lights and phones on, the secretary working (without a proper paycheck), support my children, and do the right things without a proper stream of revenue.  I think it is error on the part of those gloating over the onerous judgment Rubashkin bears to think that Rubashkin was fully cognizant of all that the offenses he is said to have orchestrated.  In fact their slam dunk child labor charges which made their way into (and tainted?) the financial fraud trial--resulted in complete acquittals.

So, why is Sholom Rubashkin refused mercy in the harsh judgment of his prosecutors and this court? 

Remember Mr. Rubashkin? He's Innocent!

Remember Mr. Rubashkin (pic), the Des Moines, Iowa Kosher Foods businessman facing life in prison for financial fraud of various stripes which I blawged about in April?  The sentencing memo of the federal prosecutors demanded that the US District Judge overseeing his case throw the book at this lousy businessman who was trying to keep his family's longtime agribusiness open.  The recommended sentence was so shocking to the conscience that former leading law enforcement including attorneys general of the United States wrote Judge Linda R. Reade to object.

Part of the call for the life sentence of Mr. Rubashkin was the claim by federal prosecutors that Rubashkin, an Orthodox Jew, was a lawless man who tolerated wholesale violations of child labor laws in his agribusiness factory which employed many immigrants from Central America. The child labor charges were tried in the US District Court which concluded last week with Rubashkin's acquittal on 67 counts by the federal jury that deliberated 12 hours following a 5 week trial.  Mr. Rubashkin's counsel are arguing that the federal financial fraud convictions were tainted by smears during the prosecution of those charges that Rubashkin's attorneys were prevented from rebutting.

I told you in April why I identify with Mr. Rubashkin, the coverage at the Des Moines Register which includes a trial blog that makes compelling reading.

One of the most interesting remarks following Rubashkin's acquittal on the child labor charges comes from Rubashkin's son coming right from Torah and Talmud.  I'm paraphrasing, read the original at the link:  the financial verdicts are bad, but the allegations of crimes involving violations of child labor laws were more serious crimes against morality.   It is one thing to bear the self-knowledge that you are a bad business man and that this judgment is something you live with--it is quite another to be accused of exploiting children and others--particularly when you tried to do something righteous and consistent with your beliefs.

The evidence offered against Sholom Rubashkin was not credible. Consistent with trial testimony this was a troubled business man and the evidence demonstrated that he personally refused to hire minors.  Shalom,  Des Moines!