The US Department of Justice has settled a $778 million criminal case with a French construction conglomerate that paid the Islamic State group to protect its operations in Syria in 2013 and 2014. , the terrorist group murdered Americans while brutally controlling the region.
Lafarge SA, a Swiss-based subsidiary of the Holcim Group with extensive operations in the United States, pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in the district of Brooklyn, New York, to conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
The company also faces criminal charges in France, where it is the first corporation to be indicted for complicity in crimes against humanity. Four years ago, French officials accused Lafarge executives of connecting with the company’s operations in Syria.
US officials on Tuesday detailed extraordinary measures company employees took to maintain operations at a cement factory in northern Syria, south of the Turkish border, during the civil war that ravaged the region.
According to a court document released on Tuesday, executives at Lafarge and its Syrian subsidiary worked with Syrian-based intermediaries to pay “numerous armed factions” such as the Islamic State and Nusra Front groups that controlled the area around the factory. cement. The payments included security services provided by the armed groups and the purchase of raw materials from suppliers controlled by the Islamic State.
The company eventually got involved in what was effectively a revenue-sharing agreement with the Islamic State, structuring its payments to the group around cement sales. As a result, IS allowed access to raw materials from its territory and Lafarge employees, suppliers and distributors to pass safely through the group’s and Nusra Front checkpoints.
The court case materials included footage of an April 2014 vehicle pass issued by an IS official in the Syrian province of Aleppo to “the brothers at Qarah Qawzak bridge checkpoints”, asking them to “kindly allow Lafarge Cement Company employees pass after completing necessary work and after paying their debts to us”.
The rewards continued even as IS captured, tortured and killed hostages. Executives coordinated cash payments to the group as part of their “deal” to keep the factory running in August 2014, about a month after IS beheaded American journalist James M. Foley, emails obtained by the government showed.
The kidnapping, torture and murder of Americans, including Foley — and the growing sense that his suffering and courage are being forgotten as time passes — was a powerful motivating factor to proceed with the case, according to law enforcement officials.
The company’s admission of guilt comes two months after the department achieved one of its most important goals, to bring IS agents to justice in a US court. In August, El Shafee Elsheikh, a key member of the group, was sentenced to life in prison in a Virginia federal court for his role in the killing of four Americans in Syria.
For years, Justice Department officials have been quietly prosecuting Lafarge under a federal criminal law that prohibits individuals or companies from harboring or collaborating with people they know to be terrorists. The case was brought in New York because one of the payments was routed through a local entity.
Evidence in the case showed that Lafarge had extensive dealings with groups that were responsible for the deaths of thousands of people.
From August 2013 to October 2014, Lafarge and its Syrian subsidiary paid the Nusra Front and the Islamic State around US$5.92 million, consisting of monthly “donation” payments and payments to suppliers. . Lafarge also paid about $1.1 million to third-party intermediaries.
Prosecutors further said the company concealed its payments and falsified records and contract dates to prevent the scheme from becoming public.
“Defendants partnered with IS, one of the most brutal terrorist organizations the world has ever known, to increase profits and market share, while IS engaged in a notorious campaign of violence,” said the deputy attorney general. Lisa Monaco during a press conference in Brooklyn announcing the deal.
Lafarge CEO Magali Anderson appeared in federal court Tuesday morning to file an admission of guilt on behalf of the company. The company said in a statement that it no longer follows the previous conduct.
“None of the conduct involved Lafarge’s operations or employees in the United States, and none of the executives involved in the scheme are with Lafarge or any affiliated entity today,” the company said, adding that it “has accepted responsibility for the actions of the executives involved, whose behavior was a blatant violation of Lafarge’s code of conduct”.
Justice Department officials played down that justification, accusing Holcim’s leadership of failing to conduct “due diligence” to investigate Lafarge’s actions in Syria after it bought the company in 2015. The Syrian company has revenue of $12 billion. (R$ 63 billion).
While other multinational companies withdrew from Syria after the civil war broke out in 2011, Lafarge made a calculated decision to stay, pushing the limits of international law. The company’s deeds, reconstructed by The New York Times in 2018 from sealed French court documents, documented executives’ efforts to carry out a series of actions – exchanges and payments – that left one of the world’s largest building materials companies vulnerable. to crimes and legal risk in the United States and France.
To transport supplies and personnel through dangerous areas and secure raw materials, Lafarge funneled money to intermediaries who traded with the Islamic State group, as well as Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria and other armed factions, according to the documents, which include testimony to investigators from former Lafarge directors, testimonies from former employees, company correspondence and a confidential internal review of Lafarge’s operations in Syria by global law firm Baker McKenzie.
When Lafarge evacuated the factory in September 2014, prosecutors said on Tuesday, the Islamic State group took possession of the cement that had been produced there and sold it for about $3.21 million.
The only other deal comparable to Lafarge’s was one in 2007 between the Department of Justice and Chiquita Brands International Inc., which admitted to paying a violent right-wing terrorist organization known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia to keep its operations going.
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
