POSTVILLE -- Agriprocessors Inc. is now in bankruptcy.

The beleaguered kosher meat packer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn.

Agriprocessors said in court papers it owes a total of $50.6 million to three secured creditors -- Farm Credit Leasing of Minneapolis; First Bank Business Capital of St. Louis, and MetLife Agricultural Investments of Chicago -- and placed much of the blame for its recent troubles on a May 12 immigration raid that netted 389 arrests.

Calls to Agriprocessors' attorney, New York-based Kevin Nash, and the company's new chief executive officer, Great Neck, N.Y.-based tax attorney Bernard Feldman, were not returned.

Feldman was hired as CEO in September after Sholom Rubashkin, son of company owner Aaron Rubashkin, had stepped down May 24 in the wake of the raid.

Sholom Rubashkin was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Oct. 30 and charged with criminal violations of immigration law, according to U.S. Attorney Matt Dummermuth of the Northern District of Iowa.

Rubashkin, 49, was charged with conspiring to harbor illegal aliens for profit, aiding and abetting document fraud, and aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft. A complaint containing the charges was filed in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids.

That same day, St. Louis-based First Bank Business Capital filed a lawsuit against Agriprocessors, alleging Agriprocessors defaulted on a $35 million loan.

First Bank claims Agriprocessors overstated how much money it had available and that the Postville plant is unable or unwilling to meet its loan payments and wants to foreclose on the plant and seize is assets.

First Bank's suit names the Rubashkins and slaughterhouses in Postville and Gordon, Neb. and includes the Rubashkins' own property, as well as livestock and plant equipment, as collateral.

Agriprocessors said it hoped the bankruptcy filing would stay First Bank's suit while the meat packer addressed issues with all of its creditors and sought new sources of financing.

In its bankruptcy filing, Agriprocessors said it currently employed between 250 and 300 workers -- down from about 1,000 before the raid. It also said it had been bringing in annual sales of about $300 million before the raid.

The company listed 20 creditors holding unsecured claims ranging between about $60,000 and $845,000, the latter of which is Des Moines-based Jacobson Staffing Co., which had been brought in after the raid for human-resources and recruitment roles for the plant. Jacobson suspended its relationship with Agriprocessors without explanation in late October and told its 450 employees not to show up for work at the plant.

Matt Ryan, president of Covington, Ky.-based One Force Staffing, which has provided about 100 production workers to Agriprocessors since the summer, said, as far as he knew, his employees would remain in Postville.

"The guy I've got managing that account has been told that they plan on getting back up and running and getting everything straightened out," Ryan said.

Thee had been reports that Madison, Wis.-based Alliant Energy had received a power disconnection notice because of unpaid bills.

Indeed, Agriprocessors said in its bankruptcy filing that it owed Alliant $318,235.80.

However, Alliant spokesman Ryan Stensland said Wednesday that the plant still had power.

"That (notice) went out last week, but we've since been able to resolve the issues and reached a payment agreement with them on their outstanding electric usage," Stensland said. "We've been working with them for a number of months to resolve outstanding issues. We've worked throughout the summer on payment agreement."

The survival of Agriprocessors' plant, whether under current or new ownership, is essential, because it supplies 60 percent of the kosher meat in the U.S., said Joe Regenstein, professor of food science and kosher food specialist at Cornell University.

"The plant is critical to the supply of kosher meat," Regenstein said. "When that's tied up, that has to be replaced."

Feldman, meanwhile, voiced some hope that negotiations with possible investors who could buy into the company could save the plant from a permanent shutdown.

Feldman was quoted as saying Nov. 4 that "full-blown discussions" with investors were in progress.

"I don't believe we're going to have substantial production of any kind in the near future," Feldman told the Associated Press.

Contact Jim Offner at (319) 291-1598 or jim.offner@wcfcourier.com