He “deeply” regrets having been able to help a terrorist organization and he is paying. The Lafarge group announced on Tuesday that it had agreed to pay a financial penalty of 778 million dollars to the United States and to plead guilty to having helped “terrorist” organizations in Syria, including Daesh, between 2013 and 2014.
The French cement manufacturer, now under the leadership of the Swiss group Holcim, has “accepted responsibility for the actions of the individual managers involved, whose behavior was in flagrant violation of the codes of conduct”, specifies the company in a press release. The latter had the immediate effect of the temporary suspension of Holcim shares on the Swiss Stock Exchange.
The group also stresses that it continues to cooperate fully with the investigation by the French authorities on the same subject, but also says it is ready to “defend itself against any legal action that it considers unjustified”.
The investigation continues in France
In France, Lafarge is charged with “complicity in crimes against humanity” concerning its activities in Syria. It is suspected of having paid in 2013 and 2014, through its Syrian subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS), several million euros to terrorist groups, including Daesh, as well as to intermediaries, in order to maintain the activity of a cement factory in Syria in Jalabiya as the country descended into war.
The investigation by the French authorities estimated that these payments could have reached between 4.8 and 10 million euros for the Daesh group alone. Lafarge is also suspected of selling cement from the factory to the terrorist group and paying intermediaries to source raw materials from jihadist factions.