At Rubashkin Trial: Informant Was Rejected Twice as Employee by Agri Due to Fake Papers

A federal informant who infiltrated the Agriprocessors meat plant in Iowa five months before a massive immigration raid applied to work at the slaughterhouse but was twice rejected because of fake work papers, a top agent testified today.

The Cedar Rapids-based special agent was called to testify by lawyers for Reb Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin, a former vice president of the plant, who is on trial for 91 financial fraud charges.

The informant, “S.A. 007,” was hired on the third try after he or she presented legitimate documents which were provided by federal investigators, special agent Michael D. Fischels told a federal jury.

Fischels, an agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was a lead investigator in the case that led to a May 2008 immigration raid at Agriprocessors, Inc. in Postville.

Fischels told jurors that the unnamed informant first applied to work at Agriprocessors on Nov. 8, 2007. The source – who, like many workers, was Hispanic – entered the plant wearing a hidden recorder and transmitter, Fischels said. Plant managers rejected the worker because his Social Security and resident alien cards were clearly fraudulent, Fischels said.

The information applied again on Dec. 11, 2007, and was once more rejected, Fischels said.

Agents then furnished the informant with legitimate documents from a forensic laboratory in Washington, D.C., Fischels said. The informant was hired, and provided authorities with information about happenings inside the plant, Fischels said.

Defense lawyers also called state Sen. Jack Kibbie, D-Emmetsburg, who testified that he sold “several hundred thousand dollars worth” of cattle to the plant each year but did not interact directly with Rubashkin.

{Des Moines Register}

{Matzav.com Newscenter}