Excerpt:
An Iowa company received nearly $1 million in Export-Import Bank financing to export beef slaughtered by Islamic standards, but instead sold regular beef that had been intentionally mislabeled.
Bill Aossey Jr., founder of Cedar Rapids-based Midamar Corp. and a leader in the local Muslim community, was found guilty last week of 15 charges, including making false statements on export certificates, The Associated Press reports.
U.S. District Judge Linda Reade determined that from 2007 to 2010, Aossey had instructed employees to re-label meat products to show that they came from a certified "halal" slaughterhouse in order to export them to Malaysia and Indonesia, which restrict beef imports to those slaughtered according to the Islamic tradition.