Cement Firm, LaFarge Pleads To Pay $780 Million Fine Over Payoffs To Terrorists 

Cement Firm LaFarge Plead To Pay $780 Million Fine Over Payoffs To Terrorists 

LaFarge, the cement giant has reached a plea bargain agreement to pay a $780m fine for economically arming terrorist groups with payoffs – providing ” provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization”.

The French construction went as far as brokering an arrangement with the group to share profits based on sales figures with the terrorist group identified to be ISIS in court papers.

The court case that produced what has been dubbed “one of the largest penalties a corporation has ever paid” is the product of investigations into the operations of Lafarge in Syria according to a report monitored by SocietyNow.Ng on FinancialTimes.COM.

Lafarge “entered a guilty plea Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn to a count of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization” FinancialTimes.Com reported.

The news platform revealed that the move that is causing Lafarge – a subsidiary of the Switzerland-based Holcim Group with extensive operations in the United States- great grief was initiated in 2012 when an unnamed executive met with representatives of several militias from southern Syria in Turkey (Gaziantep) to strike an agreement.

 The agreement was to protect – and keep going – Lafarge’s new $680 million cement plant as Syria is engulfed in civil war.

The executives of the cement manufacturer reportedly took extraordinary measures to sustain the changing yearslong agreement that came out as revenue-sharing and keep the secret.

“The defendants partnered with ISIS, one of the most brutal terrorist organizations the world has ever known, to enhance profits and increase market share, all while ISIS engaged in a notorious campaign of violence,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco reportedly stated at a news conference announcing the plea bargain by LaFarge.

Prosecutors asserted that ” the company concealed its payments, falsified records and backdated contracts to keep the arrangement from becoming public.” to sustain the relationship with the terrorist group credited with the brutal murder of thousands of people according to the report in Financial Times.

All through August 2013 to October 2014, the cement manufacturer and its Syrian arm reportedly gave Nusra Front and the Islamic some $5.92m made of monthly ‘donations” and “fees” to suppliers. The company reportedly paid about $1.1million through proxies.

“The decision to become business partners with ISIS was extraordinary,…. Leveraging ISIS to harm competitors defies belief — but it really happened.  ” Breon S. Peace, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, reportedly stated on Tuesday.

Some of the payoffs originated out of the United States of America.

And continued in the face of reports of the torture and murder of hostages,  Americans included plus the beheading of  American journalist James M. Foley.

“Evidence showed that Lafarge had extensive dealings with groups responsible for the deaths of thousands of people” FinancialTimes.Com stated in its report.

Lafarge’s chief executive, Magali Anderson entered the plea bargain for the company which  “accepted responsibility for the actions of the individual executives involved, whose behavior was in flagrant violation of Lafarge’s code of conduct.” but clarified that “None of the conduct involved Lafarge operations or employees in the United States and none of the executives who were involved in the conduct are with Lafarge or any affiliated entities today,” in a press statement published in part by FinancialTimes.Com.

 Holcim acquired LaFarge which has $12 billion in revenue in 2015.

 The Islamic State took over the $680 million cement plant the company went into bed with terrorists to protect in September 2014 and the remaining cement in the “unholy alliance” sold for $3.2million.