Former Agriprocessors Manager Hosam Amara Arrested in Israel
| U.S. Attorney’s Office April 13, 2011 |
According to Israeli authorities, former Agriprocessors’ manager Hosam Amara was arrested in Israel on March 31, 2011, pursuant to a U.S. request for extradition from Israel in connection with federal charges pending in the Northern District of Iowa.
Hosam Amara, age 46, was first indicted on November 20, 2008. A July 16, 2009, superseding indictment charged Amara with one count of conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit, 24 counts of harboring and aiding abetting the harboring of undocumented aliens for profit, one count of conspiracy to commit document fraud, and one count of aiding and abetting document fraud.
Amara will now face extradition proceedings in Israel. He is in custody pending a hearing scheduled for May 2, 2011.
If convicted on all charges, Amara faces a possible maximum sentence of 260 years’ imprisonment, a $6,750,000 fine, $2,700 in special assessments, and 81 years of supervised release following any imprisonment.
As with any criminal case, a charge is merely an accusation and a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Peter Deegan, C.J. Williams, and Matthew Cole, and the investigation has been led by 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 CR 08-1324 LRR.