FOG BLOG WORLD NEWS LOG: CEMENT MAKER LAFARGE AGREES TO PAY PENALTY FOR FINANCING ISIS!

Cement maker Lafarge agrees $780mn US penalty over payments to Isis

Company accused of ‘donations’ to terror groups in Syria in return for staff protection and raw materials

French building materials manufacturer Lafarge has agreed to pay almost $780mn in fines and forfeitures to the US government, after pleading guilty to conspiring to provide material support to Isis and the Al-Nusrah Front in war-torn Syria. The company was charged by federal prosecutors with making payments to both terrorist organisations as they controlled the area surrounding its cement plant in Jalabiyeh, Syria in 2013-2014. The US Department of Justice said the payments helped Lafarge’s local subsidiary make roughly $70mn in additional revenue. Nearly $6mn in payments, some disguised as “donations”, were sent to Isis and Al-Nusrah for the purchase of raw materials and to ensure protection of staff, ensuring operations would continue, the DoJ added. Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles.

The case follows years of parallel legal challenges and investigations in France. A French court in May upheld charges of complicity in crimes against humanity against Lafarge, after the group’s bid to have them dismissed. The company has carried out its own internal investigation, and concluded that its Syrian unit paid armed groups to help protect employees at a factory there, but rejected that it was complicit in crimes against humanity. On Tuesday, US prosecutors displayed an Isis vehicle pass from April 2014, which asked fighters operating checkpoints near the plant to “kindly allow the employees of Lafarge Cement Company to pass through after completing the necessary work and after paying their dues to us”. “Lafarge made a deal with the devil,” said Breon Peace, the US attorney for the eastern district of New York, adding that the company “paid millions of dollars to Isis, a terrorist group that otherwise operated on a shoestring budget”. Lafarge, since 2015 a division of Swiss-based Holcim, said in a statement that it accepted responsibility for the wrongdoing, had worked with the DoJ to “resolve the matter” and “deeply regret[s] that this conduct occurred”.