Lafarge pleads guilty to charge of supporting Islamic State

A company, for the first time has pleaded guilty, to the admission In Brooklyn federal court marked the in the United States to press charges of providing material support to a terrorist organization. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

The firm even acknowledged that it paid nearly 13 million euros ($12.8 million) to middlemen to keep its Syrian cement factory running in 2013 and 2014, though other firms had pulled out of the country.

French cement company Lafarge on 18 October pleaded guilty to paying $17 million to the Islamic State group for keeping a plant in Syria open. This has been described as the first of its kind by the US Justice Department.

The US Justice Department penalized the cement giant to pay $778 million fine for supporting terror groups including Islamic State during the Syrian civil war.

The firm even acknowledged that it paid nearly 13 million euros ($12.8 million) to middlemen to keep its Syrian cement factory running in 2013 and 2014, though other firms had pulled out of the country.

“Lafarge SA and its defunct subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria have agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiring to provide material support to designated foreign terrorist organizations in Syria,” AFP quoted Lafarge as saying.

“Lafarge SA and LCS have accepted responsibility for the actions of the individual 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 US Department of Justice to resolve this matter,” it added.

A French court had earlier in 2022, ruled that the company was aware that much of the money had gone to finance Islamic State operations.

Holcim Group, the Swiss conglomerate which took over Lafarge in 2015, said the US Justice Department had cleared it of any wrongdoing. Holcim added that it only learned of the allegations in 2016, and launched its own probe and cooperated with US justice authorities.

“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,” it said in a parallel statement.

The following statements arrived by the firms soon before a planned press conference by Justice Department officials in New York to announcement the settlement of the longstanding case.

The Swiss conglomerate, Holcim Group, took over Lafarge in 2015.

With inputs from agencies.   (AFP )