Home Omaha Press Releases 2010 Agriprocessors’ Operations Manger Sentenced to 10 Months for Document Fraud Conspiracy
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Agriprocessors’ Operations Manger Sentenced to 10 Months for Document Fraud Conspiracy

U.S. Attorney’s Office May 26, 2010
  • Northern District of Iowa (319) 363-6333

A top manager at Agriprocessors who participated in a conspiracy to obtain fake documents for illegal workers was sentenced today to 10 months in federal prison.

Brent Beebe, age 53, from Postville, Iowa, received the prison term after a January 11, 2010, guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to commit document fraud.

According to information disclosed in court, Beebe was one of two operations managers at Agriprocessors, Inc., in Postville and oversaw the beef-side production at the facility. The week prior to a May 12, 2008, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement action, Beebe conspired with Agriprocessors vice-president Sholom Rubashkin and others to help several employees obtain new fake identification documents. Beebe obtained $4,500 in cash from Rubashkin to be loaned to approximately 19 beef production employees to pay for new fake documents. A line supervisor used the money to obtain fake documents and then delivered the fake documents to Agriprocessors on Sunday, May 11, 2008. The documents were then used to complete new application paperwork for several employees who were illegal aliens.

Beebe was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade. Beebe was sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment. A special assessment of $100 was imposed, and he was ordered to serve a 3-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Sholom Rubashkin is scheduled to be sentenced on June 22, 2010, at 3:30 p.m. in Cedar Rapids. Rubashkin was convicted by a jury on November 12, 2009, of 86 counts of financial fraud and related offenses.

Beebe is one of 10 Agriprocessors management or office employees who have been convicted on federal charges. Only two defendants in the case remain to be prosecuted – Hosam Amara and Zeev Levi, who are fugitives. The investigation began in October 2007, and continued through and after the execution of search warrants at Agriprocessors on May 12, 2008.

Beebe was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on a date yet to be set.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Peter Deegan, C.J. Williams, and Matthew Cole, and the investigation was led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Prior assistance was provided by the United States Marshals Service, United States Postal Inspections Service, Iowa Department of Public Safety, Iowa Department of Transportation, Federal Protective Service, Internal Revenue Service—Criminal Investigations, United States Department of Labor, Public Health Service, United States Department of Agriculture, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Drug Enforcement Administration, Waterloo Police Department, and Postville Police Department.

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 08-1324.

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