Brooklyn Federal Prosecutor Breon Peace at a press conference announcing financial sanctions for Lafarge for its ties to the Islamic State group, Tuesday, October 18, 2022 in New York (AFP/TIMOTHY A. CLARY)
Lafarge, under the leadership of the Swiss group Holcim, pleaded guilty in the United States and will pay a penalty of 778 million dollars for having made the “unthinkable choice” to help the “terrorist” group Islamic State in Syria, a file for which the cement manufacturer is being prosecuted in France for “crimes against humanity”.
In order to settle the prosecution of the American authorities, the French group has “accepted responsibility for the actions of the individual leaders involved”, accused of having provided, in 2013 and 2014, support to the EI group but also to the Al-Nusra Front.
“In the midst of a civil war, Lafarge made the unthinkable choice to put money in the hands of ISIS, one of the most barbaric terrorist organizations in the world, in order to continue selling cement”, Brooklyn federal prosecutor Breon Peace lamented in New York.
“Lafarge did this not only in exchange for permission to operate its cement plant but also to leverage its relationship with ISIS and economic advantage, seeking (the group’s) help to harm competition from Lafarge. in exchange for a portion of Lafarge’s sales,” he added.
The financial sanction includes a fine of 91 million dollars and the seizure of 687 million.
The Lafarge logo in Paris, in July 2009 (AFP/Archives/Loic VENANCE)
The Ministry of Justice acknowledged that the group had put in place appropriate monitoring procedures to now detect, and avoid, any conduct of this nature and therefore considered that it was “not necessary” to appoint a monitor independent, said Lafarge.
– Indictment in France –
Lafarge also says it continues to cooperate fully with the investigation by the French authorities on the same file but also says it is ready to “defend itself against any legal action that it considers unjustified”.
The company is charged in France for “complicity in crimes against humanity” concerning its activities in Syria.
As part of this judicial investigation opened in June 2017, the group now a subsidiary of Holcim is suspected of having paid in 2013 and 2014, via its Syrian subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS), several million euros to groups ” terrorists”, including the organization EI, as well as to intermediaries, in order to maintain the activity of its Syrian cement factory in Jalabiya while the country was sinking into the war.
The investigation by the French authorities estimated that these payments could have reached between 4.8 and 10 million euros for the EI group alone.
Lafarge is also suspected of selling cement from the factory to ISIS and paying intermediaries to source raw materials from jihadist factions.
Lafarge has repeatedly requested the cancellation of his indictment for “complicity in crimes against humanity”, without success so far.
– The Lafarge name dropped –
The shares of Holcim, the parent company of Lafarge, were temporarily suspended from the Swiss stock exchange on Tuesday after the publication of the first information on the agreement with the American ministry of Justice.
Brooklyn Federal Prosecutor Breon Peace at a press conference announcing financial sanctions for Lafarge for its ties to the Islamic State group, Tuesday, October 18, 2022 in New York (AFP/TIMOTHY A. CLARY)
After its resumption of trading, it ended up 2.8%, investors generally appreciate when a company closes legal proceedings.
Holcim claims to be in no way involved in this affair prior to the merger with Lafarge in 2015 to create a global concrete giant which was first called LafargeHolcim. But the reputation-tarnished Lafarge name was dropped from the corporate name last year and reverted to simply Holcim.
Eric Olsen, from the ranks of Lafarge, had initially taken control of the group after its merger but had resigned in order to ease tensions in the file on Syria. He was replaced in 2017 by the German Jan Jenisch, the boss of the Swiss group Sika, highly respected in Switzerland, to restore confidence.
© 2022 AFP
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