Rubashkin appealing Agriprocessors fraud conviction

Attorneys for a former vice president of an Iowa kosher meatpacking plant have appealed his conviction and sentence on financial fraud charges.

Attorneys for Sholom Rubashkin filed their appeal Friday with the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.

Rubashkin was found guilty last fall on 86 federal financial fraud charges. He was sentenced last month to 27 years in prison and ordered to pay $27 million in restitution.

His attorney, Guy Cook, says evidence not related to the charges was allowed at trial and that the sentence is unjust and amounts to a life sentence for the 51-year-old Rubashkin.

Rubashkin was indicted following a 2008 raid at the Agriprocessors Inc. plant in Postville where 389 illegal immigrants were detained.