A French cement giant has pleaded guilty to providing material support to Islamic State and other militant groups during the Syrian civil war,
US Justice Department said French cement giant Lafarge SA acknowledged it paid millions of euros to middlemen to keep its Syrian cement factory running in 2013 and 2014, long after other firms had pulled out of the country
Lafarge SA has agreed to will pay a $778 million fine after pleading guilty.
Media reports said earlier this year, a French court ruled that the company was aware that much of the money had gone to finance Islamic State (IS) operations.
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,” the company said.
US Attorney Breon Peace blasted Lafarge’s actions in a Justice Department statement.
“Amid a civil war, Lafarge made the unthinkable choice to put money into the hands of ISIS, one of the world’s most barbaric terrorist organizations, so that it could continue selling cement,” Peace said.
“Lafarge did this not merely in exchange for permission to operate its cement plant – which would have been bad enough – but also to leverage its relationship with ISIS for economic advantage.”
Lafarge invested 680 million euros in the construction of its plant in Syria, which was completed in 2010 — just a year before the outbreak of the ongoing war that is estimated to have killed more than half a million people.
In its statement, Lafarge said: “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.”
