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| Sholom Rubashkin (Cutting Edge News) |
I was critical. Outraged even! Sholom Rubashkin seemed to lend credence to the false stereotype of a money hungry Jewish fraudster, I thought. Here was a bearded, recognizably Orthodox Jew
doing what antisemites of the world suspect all Jews of doing – given the
chance: Cheating the government out of lots of money while caring little about the welfare of his workers.
Rubashkin borrowed $27 million from a bank using inflated collateral. When his business went bankrupt, he did not have the assets he
claimed as collateral to pay them back. That was a federal crime and he
was tried in a federal court. Prosecutors asked for a 25 year sentence. This Chabad
father of 10 got a 27 year sentence in a federal prison. Which does not allow
for parole. The judge in the case, Linda Reade, said that his ‘lying’ in court
and unrepentant manner deserved 2 extra years in prison beyond what prosecutors
asked for. All of which was explained in her sentencing memorandum.
I had mixed emotions about this event at the time. One may
recall that this all started with a raid by federal immigration officials of
his Postville, Iowa Kosher meat processing plant, Agriprocessors. Hundreds of illegal
aliens were arrested. There were allegations of employee abuse. Organizations like
PETA accused them of mistreating the animals they slaughtered. This resulted in
Agriprocessors going bankrupt. The allegations of employee and animal abuse were
never proven and probably never will be since prosecutors decided not to
prosecute Rubashkin after he was convicted of the fraud charges.
At the time I had suspected that Mr. Rubashkin was one of
those people that takes advantage of circumstances and did not run his business
in a way that would – let us say - be a Kiddush HaShem. And for that, I thought
he should lose his business. With 20/20 hindsight, I am not so sure I was right
about that. Although it was clear that he did commit the crime it seems clear
from a variety of sources that he had every intention of paying back the illegal
bank loan. He believed his business would eventually generate enough money to do
that.
Not only that - even after he went bankrupt he tried to sell
Agriprocessors whose assets were estimated to be worth $68.6 million. He had several
potential buyers offering him well over the amount of his loan. But government interference
prevented that from happening. From the Wall Street Journal:
(E)vidence that the prosecutors hid and that Mr. Rubashkin’s attorneys found over the past few years proves that the prosecutors stymied the bankruptcy trustee from making a sale to prospective buyers at a reasonable price. Instead, they warned that buyers would forfeit the business if any member of the Rubashkin family maintained a connection to the firm, although no other family member had been charged.
True, a crime was committed. But it is ludicrous to say Rubashkin intended
to defraud the government from the outset. Nonetheless the bank lost $27
million. And he was responsible for it. So he was punished. But the punishment
he got was grossly unjust. A nearly 30 year sentence is a near life sentence
for a first time offender of a white collar crime of an illegally obtained loan where there was never
any intent to not repay it.
At the time a lot of people (including me) thought the
punishment did not fit the crime. Even one of his biggest detractors felt that way.
There was more than one letter by respected past and present public officials asking the
judge to be lenient in sentencing him. She ignored them and instead threw the
book at him and then some… outlining her reasons in a sentencing memorandum.
Which - if read out of context seemed to justify the sentence.
Agudah went to bat
for Rubashkin. Nathan Lewin, a high profile attorney, was hired to find ways to overturn
the verdict upon appeal. He was unsuccessful. Shalom Rubashkin now
sits in a federal prison having served 7 of those 27 years.
For me, this is a clear injustice. Whatever one might say
about this Lubavitcher Chasid, there is no possible way that his sentence was
just. Rubashkin was not an evil man. Far from it. Everything I had heard about him from people
that new him personally suggested that he was a good and decent man who did
many kindnesses in his life. At worst they said he got in over his head, never
wanting a career as a businessman – having left a career as an educator at
his father’s behest.
So why am I bringing all this up now? Isn’t it old news? Yes
it is. But it remains an injustice that should be corrected. Not only do I
think so… so too does an editorial in the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Rubashkin
more than paid his debt to society for the crime he has been convicted of. It’s
time to let him out. And is for the President of the United States to pardon
him. Considering that President Obama has pardoned more criminals than any
other President in history, one more pardon – which would be more than just – won’t
hurt him.
Aside for the moral issue there are also questions about
prosecutorial misconduct. I am not a lawyer, but the authors of that WSJ editorial
are. Charles B. Renfrew served as was the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Iowa and
James H. Reynolds served as a U.S. District Court judge in the Northern District of
California. Here is what they said:
Under federal mandatory-minimum sentencing guidelines for bank fraud, an offender’s sentence is directly linked to the loss incurred by the bank that was defrauded. The prosecutors’ meddling meant that the bank incurred a $27 million loss. This enabled the prosecutors to seek a staggering life-in-prison sentence for Mr. Rubashkin, which they later lowered to a still unacceptable quarter-century. The prosecutors concealed their role by soliciting false testimony from Paula Roby, counsel for the bankruptcy trustee, who said that the prosecutors did not interfere in the bankruptcy sale process. At sentencing, the prosecutors misled the court into believing this meddling never happened, a fact that was only recently discovered.
A lot of people have said about this case that we shouldn’t
be spending our political capital on this criminal. Let him rot in jail where
he belongs. I have a major problem with this attitude. Because when a man, any
man is treated unjustly, we cannot idly stand by and watch it happen. Tzedek
Tzedek Tirdof. Justice, Justice you
shall pursue the Torah tells us (Devorim 16:20). This is our mandate. Rubashkin
has more than paid a legitimate price for his crime. Justice in this case means getting this man
out of jail and back to his family.
