French cement company Lafarge pleaded guilty Tuesday to paying millions of dollars to the Islamic State group in exchange for permission to keep open a plant in Syria, a case the Justice Department described as the first of its kind.
in 2013 and 2014 to guarantee safe passage for employees and supply its plant.
In 2014, the company was handed preliminary charges including financing a terrorist enterprise and complicity in crimes against humanity. A French court later quashed the charges involving crimes against humanity but said other charges would be considered over payments made to armed forces in Syria. That ruling was later overturned by France’s supreme court, which ordered a retrial in September 2021.In a statement, Holcim said that when it learned of the allegations from the news media in 2016, it voluntarily conducted an investigation and disclosed the findings publicly.
“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,” the company said. “The DOJ noted that former Lafarge SA and LCS executives involved in the conduct concealed it from Holcim before and after Holcim acquired Lafarge SA, as well as from external auditors.
The Islamic State group is abbreviated as IS and has been referred to as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.