French construction corporation Lafarge SA agreed in Brooklyn federal court to pay $777 million as part of a plea deal to resolve claims that a former subsidiary paid terrorist groups including the Islamic State in 2014 to keep a large cement business in Syria operating.
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Paris-headquartered Lafarge and its defunct Damascus, Syria-based Lafarge Cement Syria unit each pled guilty to a count of conspiring to provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations and will pay a total of $777.78 million.
During a morning hearing, U.S. District Judge William F. Kuntz II accepted the company’s guilty plea.
“This case impacts the victims of terrorist acts,” the judge said.
Under the plea agreement, the construction giant will forfeit more than $687 million and pay a criminal fine exceeding $90 million. Lafarge also agreed to cooperate with ongoing investigations.
The government claimed that illegal LCS payments were made to both the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS, and the al-Nusrah Front in 2013 and 2014.
Deputy U.S. Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco said in a Tuesday statement that “business with terrorists should not be business as usual” as the Department of Justice continues to highlight the fight against corporate crime.
“Lafarge and its top executives not only broke the law — they helped finance a violent reign of terror that ISIS and al-Nusrah imposed on the people of Syria,” she stated.
Monaco and Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace described the cement operation as “massive,” and said that Lafarge realized over $70 million of revenue – in part through faulty contracts, falsified invoices and unofficial email communications – after ISIS hardened its grip on Syria in 2012.
In its statement, Lafarge claimed it regrets the conduct and noted that the executives responsible for the payments were dismissed in 2017.
“Lafarge SA and LCS have accepted responsibility for the actions of the individual executives involved, whose behavior was in flagrant violation of Lafarge’s code of conduct,” the company said.
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