Associated Press
Saturday, November 22, 2008

DES MOINES, Nov. 21 -- 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 had not previously faced federal charges in connection with the Agriprocessors plant in Postville. The indictment was issued Thursday and unsealed Friday.

Former chief executive Sholom Rubashkin and human resources worker Karina Freund, who were already facing federal charges, also were named in the indictment.

The superseding indictment pulls together a handful of cases pending against Agriprocessors employees 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 help is being sought in the apprehension of poultry managers Amara and Levi.

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 includes new details of previous allegations, including a meeting in a plant barn between Rubashkin and Beebe. The two allegedly discussed lending money to several workers who could not afford new documents.