The US Department of Justice announced that the Brooklyn Federal Court fined the French cement production company Lafarge to pay an estimated amount of $778m after the company admitted to providing support to terrorist organisations in Syria, including ISIS and the Al-Nusra Front.
This support was given in exchange for allowing its activities to continue in areas that were under the control of these organisations.
The department said in a statement that “Lafarge SA has admitted to entering into a revenue-sharing agreement with ISIS and agreed to pay about $778m dollars in fines and confiscations.”
“Lafarge SA and its subsidiary in Syria, Lafarge LSC, pleaded guilty to providing material support to ISIS and the Al-Nusra Front in northern Syria between 2013 and 2014,” the statement added.
According to court documents, “Paris-based Lafarge SA and Damascus-based Lafarge LSC planned to pay funds to ISIS and the Al-Nusra Front in exchange for obtaining permission from them to operate a cement factory in Syria from 2013 to 2014, which enabled Lafarge LSC to earn revenues of about $70.3m.”
“The defendants entered into a partnership with ISIS — one of the most brutal terrorist organisations the world has ever known — to boost profits and increase their market share, while the organisation engaged in a gruesome campaign of violence during the Syrian civil war,” said US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.
“E-mails exchanged by Lafarge executives show that its motives for agreeing with terrorist organisations in Syria were purely economic,” the statement continued.
Moreover, the executives of the company’s branch in Syria — which operated a cement factory in the Jalabiya area of Aleppo — purchased the raw materials necessary for the manufacture of cement from suppliers controlled by ISIS.
The US Department of Justice explained that the company’s officials “paid monthly donations” to armed organisations — including ISIS and the Al-Nusra Front — to ensure the passage of employees, customers, and suppliers while crossing checkpoints controlled by these armed organisations on the roads surrounding the Jalabiya cement factory.
Furthermore, “Lafarge LSC executives asked ISIS to impose higher royalties on competitors who were selling cement imported from Turkey in northern Syria, which was often sold at a cheaper price than cement produced at the Jalabiya plant in order to improve the company’s competitive position and increase its sales,” the statement added.
