DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - A federal grand jury has issued a 12-count indictment alleging that managers were intricately involved in efforts to employ illegal workers at a kosher slaughterhouse that was the site of one of the nation's largest immigration raids.
The indictment includes three new defendants — Brent Beebe, Hosam Amara and Zeev Levi — who haven't previously faced federal charges in connection with the Agriprocessors plant in Postville. The indictment was issued Thursday and unsealed Friday.
Former CEO Sholom Rubashkin and human resources worker Karina Freund, who were already facing federal charges, also were named in the indictment.
The indictment supersedes the previous one and lists charges including conspiracy to harbor undocumented immigrants for profit; harboring and aiding and abetting undocumented immigrants for profit; conspiracy to commit document fraud; aiding and abetting document fraud; aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft; and bank fraud.
Federal immigration agents raided the northeastern Iowa plant in May and arrested 389 workers. Arrests of Agriprocessors managers have come in the following months, as have state charges alleging labor and safety violations.
Court records show that Beebe, the plant's operations manager, was arrested without incident at noon Friday at the Agriprocessors plant. The U.S. attorney's office said the public's assistance is being sought in the apprehension of Amara and Levi, who were both poultry managers.
Calls to attorneys for Rubashkin and Freund were not immediately returned. Beebe was being arraigned Friday afternoon, and no attorney had yet been appointed.
The indictment pulls together a handful of cases pending against Agriprocessors employees and includes new details of previous allegations, including a meeting in a barn on plant property between Rubashkin and Beebe. The two allegedly discussed loaning money to several workers who could not afford new documents.
The indictment also described a discussion between poultry managers Amara and Levi and poultry supervisor Martin De La Rosa-Loera. The managers allegedly told De La Rosa-Loera to help six employees obtain and submit new paperwork after they were fired because of improper documents.
A federal judge ruled this week that Rubashkin should remain in federal custody after prosecutors argued he was a flight risk. He was arrested last week on a bank fraud charge and had been arrested earlier on immigration charges.
Freund was arrested in September and charged with harboring illegal immigrants. She faces a new charge of conspiracy to harbor undocumented immigrants.
The charges are the latest blow for a company that was once the nation's largest provider of kosher meat. The Postville plant sought bankruptcy protection this month and has been forced to halt production.
Associated Press writer Amy Lorentzen contributed to this report. |