Tag: Rubashkin

United States v. Rubashkin

May 10th, 2012

The white collar crime blog, for two years (see here and here), has given the collar for the case most needing review to the case of Sholom Rubashkin. The case has an incredible gathering now from a spectrum of individuals and groups across political and ideological views. The Petition for Cert is here and background on the case is here. Here are some of the interesting updates on this case –

Washington Legal Foundation – Urges High Court to Review Unreasonably Harsh Sentence for Small-Business Owner

Amici Brief for Justice Fellowship & Criminal Law & Sentencing Professors and Lawyers – Download 11-1203 amici brief (a wonderful brief authored by David Deitch and Alain Jeff Ifrah that points out the jurisdiction split among Circuits and why it is important for Appellate "judges to state on the record that they have considered each non-frivolous argument for variance under the factors listed in Section 3553(a)" and how and why each such argument affected the sentence imposed.

Amicus Brief of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers (APRL) – Download APRL Amicus Brief in Rubashkin (a strong brief written by W. William Hodes that provides the importance of this case from the perspective of "an independent national organization of lawyers and legal scholars whose practices and areas of academic inquiry are concentrated in all aspects of the law of lawyering." The brief focuses on the jurisdiction split regarding Rule 33 of the Federal Rules of Criminal procedure. The brief also points out important ethics issues that warrant review in this case.)

Hopefully, someone is listening.

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Eighth Circuit Affirms Rubashkin Case

September 17th, 2011

One of the 2010 White Collar Crime Blog Awards went to the Sholom Rubashkin case. (see here). It gave it a "collar for the Case Most Needing Review – Sholom Rubashkin’s 27 year sentence."

The Eighth Circuit has now reviewed that case, but unfortunately for Rubashkin, with a result that does not change its prior outcome. The court held that "Rubashkin did not make a timely recusal motion . . " and that "[a]fter studying the lengthy record we find no evidence that the district court's decision to remain on the case prejudiced Rubashkin's verdict." The court also concluded "that Rubashkin's money laundering convictions were lawful and did not merge with any other of his crimes." Finally, the court upheld the sentence, saying that "the district court's loss calculation" was not error. The Eighth Circuit states, "[s]entences within the guideline range are presumed to be substantively reasonable."

And so for now, Rubashkin's 27 year sentence remains. Top law professors who are key sentencing experts wrote an amici brief in this case, in support of Rubashkin. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will re-examine this case.

Opinion here.

See Linda Friedman Ramirez, International Criminal, Extradition and Immigration Defense News, White Collar Crime: 8th Circuit Affirms Rubashkin's Conviction and Sentence (Agriprocessor Fraud Offenses)

See also Doug Berman, Sentencing Law & Policy, Eighth Circuit panel unanimously affirms Rubashkin federal convictions and lengthy prison sentence

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Government Withdraws Objection to the Filing of Amici Briefs in Rubashkin Case

March 7th, 2011

Blogged here was a discussion of the initial government response to amici filing briefs in the Rubashkin case. It is nice to see that the government has now withdrawn its objection to the filing of these briefs. Govts. Withdrawal of Objection – Download Government withdrawal of objection As previously stated, amici briefs serve an important function and courts often rely on amici to present matters that need to be addressed in a case. So it is good to see the government – acting as "ministers of justice" – and having trust in the courts to hear and read everything.

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Government Fighting the Filing of Amici Briefs

February 25th, 2011

Anthony J. Franze & R. Stanton Jones (Arnold & Porter LLP) have a wonderful article in Bloomberg Law Reports titled, With Friends Like These: The Troubling Implications of the Government's Recent Effort to Block Amicus Curiae Briefs in a Controversial White Collar Criminal Appeal.

Amici briefs serve an important function and courts often rely on amici to present matters that need to be addressed in a case. One would think the government – as "ministers of justice" – would want the court to hear and read everything. So a non-consent on the filing of amici briefs in a case when government conduct is being questioned is troubling. And if the amici briefs are nothing more than someone "seeking to 'inject interest group politics into this case'" - wouldn't the court be capable of recognizing this?

I have previously blogged about the Rubashkin case here.

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Judges Sentencing Order Calls for Twenty Seven Years for Head of Iowa Kosher Meat Plant

June 21st, 2010

The Hon. Linda R. Reade issued a sentencing memorandumin the case of Sholom Rubashkin who is scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow. The case arose from a raid of his plant for alleged illegal aliens. The grand jury issued a 163 count Indictment against the defendant that charged him with conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit, harboring and aiding and abetting the harboring of undocumented aliens for profit, conspiracy to commit document fraud, aiding and abetting document fraud, bank fraud, false statements and reports to a bank, wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering and willful violation of an order of the secretary of agriculture and aiding and abetting willful violation of an order of the secretary of agriculture.(see here for prior discussion of sentencing), He took the risk of going to trial and the jury returned some not guilty verdicts, but also many guilty ones. Interestingly, in state court he also risked trial and was found not guilty there. (see here) The government moved to dismiss the immigration counts. The court's Sentencing Memo methodically goes through the arithmetic of how the sentence was computed. The court fails to adjust the sentence to account for the defendant's son being "developmentally disabled" saying "such considerations of sympathy and compassion are present in all criminal cases that come before this court."

For those who claim that Booker and its progeny will be the demise of long sentences in white collar cases, they need only read this memorandum to see otherwise.

See also Grant Schulte, Des Moines Register, Rubashkin’s wife to leave Postville; Michael J. Crumb, Baltimore Sun, Judge: Former Iowa kosher slaughterhouse manager will get 27 years in prison, pay $27M; Doug Berman, Sentencing Law & Policy Blog, Kosher plant CEO Sholom Rubashkin sentenced to 27 years imprisonment

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Charging Many Counts Can Result in Hearing the Words “Not Guilty” Many Times

June 12th, 2010

Sholom Rubashkin, the manager of a kosher meat plant in Iowa, had been unsuccessful in federal court as he was found guilty of bank fraud and related charges resulting from a raid premised on illegal immigration. He awaits sentencing in that case (see background here). But the same result is not seen on the state side in charges that came from the federal case, albeit different allegations. Following a five-week trial (yes – five weeks), he was found not guilty of 67 counts (yes – 67 counts) of child labor. What is particularly noteworthy here is that he was initially charged with 9,311 counts of child labor violations as the state had charged a separate criminal charge for each day of the 31 minors alleged in the case. Prior to trial they reduced this to 67 counts and the judge granted a directed verdict as to 16 of these counts. This was not an easy case for the defense as the court's instructions included a mistake of fact instruction that stated that any mistaken belief in the age of the workers had to "be because of a good faith reasonable belief" and that the defendant "must inquire or determine what is true when to do so would be reasonable under the circumstances." A change of venue had been granted in this case, but it remained in Iowa where jurors may have been aware of the federal case. Despite these obstacles for the defense, the jury returned not guilty verdicts. The defendant was represented by Mark E. Weinhardt and Holly Logan of Belin McCormick, PC (Des Moines, Iowa) and F. Montgomery Brown of Brown Scott, PLC (West Des Moines, Iowa).

See also Julia Preston, NYTimes, Former Manager of Iowa Slaughterhouse Is Acquitted of Labor Charges; WCF Courier, Slaughterhouse manager acquitted in kid labor trial

(esp) (blogging from Marseille, France)
A Reasonable Sentence

April 26th, 2010

There is growing support in the case of Sholom Rubashkin for the court not to follow the government's sentencing plan. After all, it is extreme for the government to want to give this first offender something like "three decades" or a life sentence -

Mike Scarcella, BLT Blog, More Former AGs Question Sentence Sought in Bank Fraud Case

Professor Alan M. Dershowitz here

Professor Paul Cassell here

Other professors here

I agree with these professors and former prosecutors. This type of white collar crime does not deserve a sentence in excess of a second degree murderer. In the post-Booker world, we need to see more courts looking beyond mathematical computations or mere loss figures, and looking at the individual offender. Hopefully this court will do just that.

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