Former Agriprocessors CFO Sentenced for Bank Fraud Conspiracy

A man who was the Chief Financial Officer at Agriprocessors, Inc., in Postville, Iowa, was sentenced today to more than three years in federal prison.

Yomtov (Toby) Bensasson, age 56, from Postville, Iowa, received the prison term after an August 4, 2009, guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to make false statements to a bank.

At the guilty plea, Bensasson admitted that, between at least September 2007, through about October 2008, he conspired with others to make false statements to a bank in connection with requests for advances on a loan. He also admitted he signed a Collateral Certificate on September 4, 2007, that overstated the value of collateral as part of his employer’s request for an advance on the loan.

According to materials filed with the Court, Bensasson participated in a scheme with Agriprocessors’ vice-president Sholom Rubashkin to create fake sales in order to fraudulently inflate the amount of accounts receivable collateral on Agriprocessors’ books. Rubashkin also directed Agriprocessors accounting personnel to fail to record customer payments received—further inflating the amount of accounts receivable collateral reported in the books. Bensasson and Rubashkin used the inflated collateral numbers to fraudulently borrow more money from the bank than otherwise would have been allowed.

Bensasson was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade. Bensasson was sentenced to 41 months’ imprisonment. A special assessment of $100 was imposed, and he was ordered to make $26,919,419 in restitution to banks that were victimized by the fraud. He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

The United States Attorney’s Office works to ensure victims are made whole as quickly as possible and is seeking the public’s assistance in locating or identifying Bensasson’s assets. If anyone has information regarding Bensasson’s assets with a significant value, they are urged to call 319-731-4080.

Bensasson 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 E. Deegan, Jr., C.J. Williams, and Matthew Cole and was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is CR 09-1013.