In May 2008, Sholom received a target letter and hired counsel. Sholom left Agriprocessors for about a week (late May-early June) and his resignation was announced. Agripriocessors’ public relations publicized the announcement, misidentifying him as the “CEO,†which position he never held. Subsequently, Heshy and Aaron begged Sholom to come back to work at Agriprocessors and he agreed.
In this period of time, Sholom traveled several times to New York for meeting with potential investors, including on July 6-9, 2008 and August 24-September 5, 2008. On September 9, 2008, the State Complaint was filed. On September 10, 2008, Phil Lykens from FBBC called Sholom and was upset about the risk that Agriprocessors would lose its OU Certification and the State complaint. On September 18, 2008, Bernie Feldman was hired as CEO, and Sholom moved out of his office. Subsequently, Sholom worked with Bernie Feldman to find monies to pay for vendors and expenses, including feed for live chickens worth over a million dollars.