ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A major French industrial company and its Syrian subsidiary on Tuesday pleaded guilty to providing material support and resources to the Islamic State (ISIS) and al-Nusra Front (ANF) during the militant group’s reign of terror in Syria from 2013 to 2014.
A federal court in New York sentenced Paris-based Lafarge and its Syrian subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS) to pay financial penalties totaling $777.78 million, after pleading guilty to having negotiated deals with armed factions in the Syrian civil war, including ISIS and ANF, to ensure that the operation of a cement plant they were running would continue despite the start of the war.
Lafarge and LCS had reached a revenue-sharing agreement with ISIS, under which LCS would pay the militant group 750 Syrian Pounds per each ton of cement that it sold, in exchange for protection for the company’s employees and customers, as well as curbing the revenues of its competitors through imposing taxes or preventing their sales.
“In the midst of 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,” a statement from the US justice department cited Breon Peace, US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, as saying.
“This unprecedented charge and resolution reflect the extraordinary crimes committed and demonstrates that corporations that take actions in contravention of our national security interests in violation of the law will be held to account.”
From August 2013 to October 2014, Lafarge and LCS made approximately $70.3 million in total sales revenue, paying $5.92 million to ISIS and ANF and $1.11 million to third-party intermediaries during that same time. ISIS obtained an additional $3.21 million after it took possession of the cement when LCS abandoned the plant in September 2014, the statement added.
ISIS seized swathes of Iraqi and Syrian land in 2014 but was declared territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019.
