French cement firm Lafarge admits paying Isis millions to keep factory open
18 October 2022, 17:54
The charges were announced in a New York City federal court.
French cement company Lafarge has pleaded guilty to paying millions to the so-called Islamic State (Isis) in exchange for permission to keep a factory open in Syria.
It has agreed to pay fines of roughly 91 million US dollars (£80.5 million) and forfeit an additional 687 million dollars (£608 million) for a total penalty of around 778 million dollars (£688.5 million).
Prosecutors accused the firm of turning a blind eye to the terrorist group’s conducts, making payments in 2013 and 2014 as it occupied a broad swathe of Syria and tortured and beheaded kidnapped westerners.
The company’s actions were before it merged with Swiss firm Holcim to form the world’s largest cement maker.
The payments were designed to ensure the continued operations of a roughly 680 million dollar (£600.4 million) factory prosecutors say Lafarge built in 2011 at the start of the Syrian civil war.
The money was to be used to protect employees and keep a competitive edge.
“The defendants routed nearly six million dollars (£5.3 million) in illicit payments to two of the world’s most notorious terrorist organisations — Isis and al-Nusrah Front in Syria — at a time those groups were brutalising innocent civilians in Syria and actively plotting to harm Americans,” assistant attorney general Matthew Olsen, the Justice Department’s top national security official, said in a statement.
“There is simply no justification for a multi-national corporation authorising payments to designated terrorist organisations,” he added.
The charges were announced by federal prosecutors in New York City and by senior Justice Department (DOJ) leaders from Washington.
The DOJ described it as the first time a company has pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation.
The allegations involve conduct earlier investigated by authorities in France.
Lafarge previously acknowledged funnelling money to Syrian armed organisations in 2013 and 2014 to guarantee safe passage for employees and supply its plant.
In 2014, the company was hit with preliminary charges, including financing a terrorist enterprise and complicity in crimes against humanity.
A French court later quashed the charges involving crimes against humanity but said other charges would be considered over payments made to armed forces in Syria.
That ruling was later overturned by France’s supreme court, which ordered a retrial in September 2021.
The wrongdoing precedes Lafarge’s merger with Holcim in 2015.
In a statement, Holcim said when it learned of the allegations from the news media in 2016, it voluntarily conducted an investigation and disclosed the findings publicly.
It fired the former Lafarge executives involved in the payments.
“None of the conduct involved Holcim, which has never operated in Syria, or any Lafarge operations or employees in the United States, and it is in stark contrast with everything that Holcim stands for,” the company said.
“The DOJ noted that former Lafarge SA and LCS executives involved in the conduct concealed it from Holcim before and after Holcim acquired Lafarge SA, as well as from external auditors.”
