A leader of the Crown Heights Chabad community will pay $500,000 for illegally storing chemical waste.
Rabbi Moshe Rubashkin pleaded guilty Tuesday to illegally storing chemical waste at a textile mill owned by his family. His son, Sholom, confessed last month to lying to federal agents, telling them that the family did not own the mill when it became contaminated.
Both Rubashkins will be sentenced later this year and could spend up to five years in jail.
The fine will be used to reimburse the local and federal agencies that cleaned up the site.
Moshe Rubashkin, who also pleaded guilty to a count of bank fraud for passing bad checks in 2002 and spent 15 months in jail, heads the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council. Chabad Lubavitch’s international headquarters are located in the enclave in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Moshe Rubashkin’s father, Rabbi Aaron Rubashkin, founded the AgriProcessors slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, the largest supplier of kosher meat in the United States.
