Round Up: Lafarge Pleads Guilty to Providing Material Support to ISIS and Al-Nusrah Front, Fined $777 Million

- 19 October, 2022
Lafarge Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Provide Material Support to Foreign Terrorist Organizations

Lafarge S.A. (Lafarge), a global building materials manufacturer headquartered in France, and Lafarge Cement Syria, S.A. (LCS), a Lafarge subsidiary headquartered in Syria, pleaded guilty to a one-count criminal information charging them with conspiring to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and the al-Nusrah Front (ANF), both U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations.  Immediately following the defendants’ guilty pleas this morning, United States District Judge William F. Kuntz, II sentenced the defendants to terms of probation and to pay financial penalties, including criminal fines of $90.78 million and forfeiture of $687 million, totaling $777.78 million.

The charges arose out of the defendants’ scheme to pay ISIS and ANF in exchange for permission to operate a cement plant in Syria from August 2013 to October 2014, which enabled LCS to obtain approximately $70.30 million in revenue… Read the full press release here: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/lafarge-pleads-guilty-conspiring-provide-material-support-foreign-terrorist

Statement of Facts
In or about 2011, after a civil war began in Syria, LCS, with the knowledge and approval of LAFARGE, conspired to engage in transactions, through intermediaries, with numerous armed factions present in the region of the Jalabiyeh Cement Plant, ultimately including the U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations ISIS and ANF. While other multinational corporations withdrew from and ceased operations in Syria, LAFARGE and LCS executives, through intermediaries, negotiated agreements to pay these armed groups to protect LCS employees, to ensure continued operation of the Jalabiyeh Cement Plant, and to obtain economic advantage over their competitors in the Syrian cement market. LAFARGE and LCS executives conspired to make periodic security payments to armed groups, including ISIS and ANF, and to purchase raw materials from ISIS-controlled suppliers who paid ISIS based on the amount of their sales to LCS. Moreover, for the explicit purpose of incentivizing ISIS to act in a manner that would promote LAFARGE’s and LCS’s security and economic interests, LAFARGE and LCS conspired to make payments to ISIS based on the volume of cement that LCS sold—effectively a revenue-sharing agreement that LAFARGE and LCS executives likened to paying “taxes” to ISIS. In exchange, ISIS permitted access to raw materials sourced from territory under its control so that the Jalabiyeh Cement Plant could continue to produce cement, and further allowed LCS employees, suppliers and customer-distributors to safely pass through ISIS and ANF checkpoints on the roads leading to the Jalabiyeh Cement Plant. ISIS also agreed to impose costs on, and in some cases block the importation of, competing cement from Turkey… Read the full statement of facts here: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/press-release/file/1545016/download
Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco Delivers Remarks Announcing a Guilty Plea by Lafarge on Terrorism Charges

Thank you, Breon, and thank you all for being here.

Today’s guilty pleas to terrorism charges by multi-national construction conglomerate Lafarge SA and its Syrian subsidiary reflect corporate crime that reached a new low and a very dark place.

For the first time ever, the United States has charged these companies with providing material support to terrorist organizations — in this case, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and the al-Nusrah Front (ANF).

And for the first time, companies have pleaded guilty to supporting terrorist organizations, with Lafarge SA and its Syrian subsidiary facing criminal penalties of more than three-quarters of a billion dollars.

Protecting national security by fighting international terrorism is mission-critical for the Department of Justice.

Fighting corporate crime is also a top Department priority.

Today’s charges and guilty pleas should make clear: when companies and their executives engage in conduct that threatens our national security — in this case by fueling a violent terrorist organizations — the Department will respond with resolve.

And this case also makes clear – business with terrorists cannot be business as usual… Read the full remarks here: https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/deputy-attorney-general-lisa-o-monaco-delivers-remarks-announcing-guilty-plea-lafarge

Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew G. Olsen Delivers Remarks on Lafarge Guilty Plea

As you’ve heard this morning, there is no question as to the seriousness of the conduct at the heart of today’s resolution. The defendants routed nearly six million dollars in illicit payments to ISIS and al-Nusrah Front in Syria – two of the world’s most notorious terrorist groups.

In my time as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, I saw the horrific violence perpetrated by these terrorist organizations and the ways they exploited sectarian violence in Syria to seize territory, coerce the civil population and generate revenue streams to accelerate their attack plotting.

The defendants negotiated and made unlawful payments at a time when these groups were gaining territory and brutalizing innocent civilians in Syria and elsewhere and were actively plotting against Americans.

LaFarge and its Syrian subsidiary have admitted to engaging in criminal conduct that constitutes material support to terrorism in both legal and practical terms. There is no justification – none – for a multi-national corporation authorizing payments to a designated terrorist group. Such payments are egregious violations of our laws, justify maximum scrutiny by U.S. authorities, and warrant severe punishment… Read the full remarks here: https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/assistant-attorney-general-national-security-matthew-g-olsen-delivers-remarks-lafarge