French company to pay $777 million and plead guilty to bribing ISIS as terror group killed Westerner
Source: CNBC
Lafarge SA pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $777.8 million Tuesday to resolve a U.S. federal criminal charge related to the French company’s payments to ISIS another terror group to keep a cement plant operating in Syria. The nearly $17 million payments to ISIS and the al-Nusrah Front were made from August 2013 through October 2014, and occurred even as the terror group was kidnapping and killing Westerners.
“Lafarge has admitted and taken responsibility for its staggering crime,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace in a statement. “Never before has a corporation been charged with providing material support and resources to foreign terrorist organizations.” Peace’s office said Lafarge Cement Syria executives bought materials needed for their cement plant in the Jalabiyeh region of northern Syrian from ISIS-controlled suppliers, and paid monthly “donations” to ISIS and ANF, so that employees, customers and suppliers could cross checkpoints around the plant.
Lafarge Cement Syria “eventually agreed to make payments to ISIS based on the volume of cement that LCS sold to its customers, which Lafarge and LCS executives likened to paying ‘taxes,’ ” Peace’s office said.
An indictment against Lafarge and its defunct Syrian subsidiary was unsealed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, charging them with one count of conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, Lafarge pleaded guilty and was sentenced at a hearing there.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/18/lafarge-cement-to-plead-guilty-pay-more-than-700-million-on-charges-of-bribing-isis-as-terror-group-killed-westerners.html
Article being updated.
Last update -
The investigation that led to Lafarge being indicted in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, is ongoing. No individuals have been charged. The Department of Justice has scheduled an 11 a.m. ET press conference on the case in the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Lafarge was purchased by Switzerland-based Holcim in 2015. Holcim in a statement to CNBC said it supports the plea agreement that Lafarge reached with DOJ.
"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," Holcim said in that statement. "The DOJ noted that former Lafarge SA and [Lafarge Cement Syria] executives involved in the conduct concealed it from Holcim before and after Holcim acquired Lafarge SA, as well as from external auditors," Holcim said.
Previous article/headline -
Lafarge Cement has agreed to plead guilty Tuesday and pay a fine of more than $700 million to U.S. federal criminal charges related to the French company's involvement in payments to the terror organization ISIS to keep a plant operating in Syria.
The payments to ISIS were made from 2012 through 2014, and occurred even as the terror group was kidnapping and killing westerners, NBC News reported.
The investigation that lead to Lafarge being indicted in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, is ongoing.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
Previous full headline: French company to plead guilty, pay more than $700 million on charges of bribing ISIS as terror group killed westerners
= new reply since forum marked as read
