Psychiatrist says Iowa kosher slaughterhouse ex-manager convicted of fraud admitted crimes

Psychiatrist: Kosher plant manager admitted fraud

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — A former executive of a kosher Iowa slaughterhouse who was convicted of financial fraud knew illegal immigrants worked at the plant, an admission that directly contradicts what he said under oath, a psychiatrist testified Wednesday at the executive’s sentencing hearing.

The psychiatrist was hired by the defense for former Agriprocessors Inc. manager Sholom Rubashkin. She testified under cross-examination that Rubashkin admitted to her during an interview that he committed bank fraud.

Rubashkin is facing a possible life sentence after being convicted on 86 counts of financial fraud in November. The Postville plant he managed was the site of a massive immigration raid in May 2008.

“Did he admit to the crimes?” Assistant U.S. Attorney C.J. Williams asked Dr. Susan Fiester of Bethesda, Md.

“Yes, essentially,” Fiester replied.

Williams further pressed the point, asking if Rubashkin’s statement was “inconsistent with trial testimony,” to which Fiester said it was. But Fiester wouldn’t say whether that meant Rubashkin lied under oath.

“I didn’t ask him that,” Fiester said.

Rubashkin acknowledged during his trial that he made mistakes as a manager, but he testified that he never intentionally violated immigration or federal fraud laws.

Prosecutors originally leveled 163 immigration and financial fraud counts against Rubashkin, but they dropped the immigration charges after Rubashkin was convicted on the fraud charges.

The sentencing hearing is expected to last until at least the end of the day on Thursday. U.S. District Court Judge Linda R. Reade said Wednesday that she would consider the statements of those who testify and render a judgment “three to four weeks” after the hearing.

Rubashkin was convicted of creating phony invoices to show St. Louis-based First Bank Business Capital that the slaughterhouse had more money flowing in than it did.

Defense attorney F. Montgomery Brown questioned FBI Special Agent Randy Van Gent about how much of a $35 million revolving loan from the bank was affected by the fraud. Brown said an original 1999 loan for $20 million was “clear and pristine” and that Rubashkin’s bank fraud didn’t start until 2007.

Van Gent maintained the fraud applied to the entire $35 million. He also said that had the bank “known about the extent of the fraud” it likely would not have continued to give Agriprocessors cash infusions after the slaughterhouse declared bankruptcy in November 2008. The cash infusions added up to about $5 million.

Several former business partners and family members testified that Rubashkin wasn’t ultimately responsible for mistakes made at the plant.

Former Agriprocessors poultry manager Joseph Gourarie said Rubashkin wanted to fire about 200 illegal immigrants at the plant months before the raid but couldn’t get permission from his father, former Agriprocessors owner Aaron Rubashkin.

“It was at times difficult to know who was ultimately in charge,” Gourarie said. “I’m not sure he could have (fired the workers) with unilateral authority.”

Later, a rabbi from Bel Harbor, Fla., testified about how Rubashkin’s religious beliefs would affect his prison stay. As a member of the Lubavitch branch of Orthodox Judaism, Rubashkin would require a kosher diet and would wear a head covering that would make him stand out, Rabbi Sholom Lipskar said.

Lipskar also said recreation would be more limited than it is for the average prisoner because Lubavitchers generally don’t watch television or work out.

“It’s a much more intense experience,” Lipskar said. “To a Hasidic Jew, being in prison for a year could be much more severe than for another person.”

Testimony was scheduled to resume Thursday morning.