Sholom Rubashkin, the Orthodox Jew who ran a kosher meat-processing plant in Iowa, has been sentenced to 27 years on fraud charges

In November 2009, he was convicted of 86 counts of federal bank fraud in connection with loans to the company, Agriprocessors. Prosecutors had pushed for a life sentence. The sentencing judge, Linda Reade, said Rubashkin had repeatedly defrauded banks out of millions of dollars. She cited one episode in which Rubashkin lent $4,500 to illegal immigrants working in his plant so that they could buy fake identity documents, in order to try to ward off questioning by immigration authorities.