Sholom Rubashkin

Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin (born October 30, 1959) is the former CEO of Agriprocessors, a now-bankrupt kosher slaughterhouse and meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa, formerly owned by his father, Aaron Rubashkin.

During his time as CEO of the plant, Agriprocessors grew into one of the nation's largest kosher meat producers, but was also cited for issues involving animal cruelty, food safety, environmental safety, child labor, and hiring undocumented immigrants.

In 1981, Rubashkin married Leah Goldman and spent a year learning in kollel.

He then worked in his father's butcher shop, until he and his wife were sent to Atlanta, Georgia, as emissaries (shluchim) in the Chabad-Lubavitch outreach program.

A year later the couple moved to Minnesota, whence Rubashkin commuted to his father's new meat-packing plant in Postville for approximately three years before they relocated there.

The couple has ten children.

In 1987, Aaron Rubashkin opened the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, and put two of his sons in charge: Sholom, the second-youngest, as CEO; and Heshy, the youngest, as vice president of marketing and sales.

Eventually, Agriprocessors became the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse and meat packing plant and the only one authorized by Israel's Orthodox rabbinate to export beef to Israel.

According to statistics Rubashkin gave to Cattle Buyers Weekly, Agriprocessors' sales increased from $80 million in 1997 to $180 million in 2002.

In 2002, Agriprocessors was ranked as one of the 30 biggest beef-packing plants in America.

Under Rubashkin's leadership, Agriprocessors was cited for issues involving animal treatment, food safety, environmental safety, child labor, and hiring other undocumented workers.

In 2004 and again in 2008, PETA documented Agriprocessors’ cruel treatment of animals and gruesome violations of Kosher law.

Rubashkin was replaced as CEO in September 2008.

Agriprocessors' plants stopped operating in October 2008.

On November 5, 2008, the firm filed for bankruptcy.

On May 12, 2008, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security agents raided the plant and arrested 389 workers who had fraudulent identity documentation.

At that time, it was the largest raid into a workplace in the United States.

On October 30, 2008, one day after the Iowa labor commissioner fined Agriprocessors $10 million for wage violations, Rubashkin was arrested on federal conspiracy charges of harboring undocumented immigrants and aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft.

Federal officials claimed that he intentionally helped undocumented workers obtain false documentation.

After an initial court appearance, he was released the same day on $1 million appearance bond after agreeing to wear an ankle monitor to track his movement, to limit his travel to northern Iowa, and to surrender his and his wife's passports.

On November 13, 2008, Rubashkin was arrested again at his Postville home on federal charges of bank fraud.

The charges claimed that under his direction, millions of dollars that were supposed to be deposited in an account as collateral for a loan were fraudulently diverted to another account and used to fraudulently increase the value of Agriprocessors' accounts receivable.

After the money was diverted, Rubashkin allegedly ordered the records of these transactions removed from company computers.

The charges carried up to 30-year prison terms.

Rubashkin was denied release on bail on November 20, 2008, after Magistrate Judge Jon Scoles determined that he posed a flight risk.

Scoles took into consideration Israel's "Law of Return," which grants automatic citizenship to every Jew and members of his family upon immigration, as well as a search of Rubashkin's house in which federal agents found a bag with $20,000 in cash, several silver coins and passports.

The successful use of an argument based on Israel's Law of Return has caused concern among Jewish communities who fear that such claims could be used to deny bail to Jews in general.

In November 2009, Rubashkin was convicted of 86 counts of financial fraud, including bank fraud, mail and wire fraud and money laundering.

District Court Judge Linda Reade reversed Scoles's ruling on January 27, 2009.

Rubashkin was released on $500,000 bond and ordered to surrender his birth certificate and his and his family's passports and agree to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet.

He was not allowed to leave Allamakee County or on any of Agriprocessors' property and was barred from having contact with potential witnesses.

Rubashkin was convicted in November 2009 on 86 charges of financial fraud, including bank fraud, mail and wire fraud and money laundering.

In June 2010, he was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

In a separate trial, he was acquitted of knowingly hiring underage workers.

He served his sentence in Federal Correctional Institution, Otisville in Mount Hope, New York.

In January 2011, his lawyers filed an appeal; on September 16, 2011, the appeals court ruled against Rubashkin.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of that ruling on October 1, 2012.

On December 20, 2017, asserting a large bipartisan push for the measure, President Donald Trump commuted Rubashkin's prison sentence after eight years served.

Sholom Rubashkin was the second-youngest son of Rivka and Aaron Rubashkin, a kosher butcher from Brooklyn, New York, born in Nevel, Russia.

The Rubashkins are ultra-Orthodox Jews belonging to the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement.