Eastern District of Latest York US Attorney Breon Peace speaks during a press conference in Latest York City on October 18, 2022.
Timothy A. Clary | AFP | Getty Images
Lafarge SA on Tuesday pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $777.8 million to resolve a U.S. federal criminal charge related to the French company’s payments to ISIS and one other terror group to maintain a cement plant operating in Syria.
The $10.24 million in payments to ISIS, the al-Nusrah Front and intermediaries were made out of August 2013 through October 2014, and occurred at the same time as the fear group was kidnapping and killing Westerners.
“Lafarge has admitted and brought responsibility for its staggering crime,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace in an announcement. “Never before has a company been charged with providing material support and resources to foreign terrorist organizations.”
Peace’s office said Lafarge Cement Syria executives bought materials needed for his or her cement plant within the Jalabiyeh region of northern Syria from ISIS-controlled suppliers, and paid monthly “donations” to ISIS and ANF, in order that employees, customers and suppliers could cross checkpoints across the plant.
Lafarge Cement Syria “eventually agreed to make payments to ISIS based on the quantity of cement that LCS sold to its customers, which Lafarge and LCS executives likened to paying ‘taxes,'” Peace’s office said.
An indictment against Lafarge and its defunct Syrian subsidiary was unsealed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, Latest York, charging them with one count of conspiring to supply material support to a chosen foreign terrorist organization, Lafarge pleaded guilty and was sentenced at a hearing there.
No individuals have been charged within the case, but authorities said their investigation is ongoing.
“Within the midst of a civil war, Lafarge made the unthinkable selection to place money into the hands of ISIS, considered one of the world’s most barbaric terrorist organizations, in order that it could proceed selling cement,” Peace said.
“Lafarge did this not merely in exchange for permission to operate its cement plant – which might have been bad enough – but additionally to leverage its relationship with ISIS for economic advantage, looking for ISIS’s assistance to harm Lafarge’s competition in exchange for a cut of Lafarge’s sales,” Peace said.
Lafarge was purchased by Switzerland-based Holcim in 2015.
In an announcement, Lafarge said, “Lafarge SA and [Lafarge Cement Syria] have accepted responsibility for the actions of the person executives involved, whose behavior was in flagrant violation of Lafarge’s Code of Conduct.
“We deeply regret that this conduct occurred and have worked with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve this matter,” Lafarge said.
Holcim in an announcement to CNBC said it supports the plea agreement that Lafarge reached with the DOJ.
“Not one of the conduct involved Holcim, which has never operated in Syria, or any Lafarge operations or employees in america, and it’s in stark contrast with the whole lot that Holcim stands for,” Holcim said in that statement.
“The DOJ noted that former Lafarge SA and [Lafarge Cement Syria] executives involved within the conduct concealed it from Holcim before and after Holcim acquired Lafarge SA, in addition to from external auditors,” Holcim said.
“When Holcim learned of the allegations from media reports in 2016, Holcim proactively and voluntarily conducted an intensive investigation, led by a significant U.S. law firm and overseen by the Board of Directors. It publicly disclosed the principal investigative findings in 2017 and separated from former Lafarge SA and LCS executives who were involved in these events.”
Lafarge was indicted by French authorities in 2018 in reference to the ISIS payments on charges of being complicit in crimes against humanity.
In its statement Tuesday, Lafarge said it “continues to cooperate fully with the French authorities of their investigation of the conduct and can defend itself against any judicial actions that it regards as unjustified within the French proceedings.”
Holcim said in its statement that the DOJ has determined that it is just not obligatory to appoint an independent compliance monitor for Lafarge because Holcim has effective compliance and risk management controls to detect potential similar conduct.
Correction: Lafarge SA pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $777.8 million to resolve a U.S. federal criminal charge. An earlier version misstated the figure.