A French cement company accused of paying off the Islamic State to continue operations in Syria will pay close to $780 million through a criminal plea agreement with the U.S., the Justice Department announced Tuesday morning.
The company, Lafarge, which is based in Paris, paid ISIS leaders $5.92 million to keep production facilities open from August 2013 to October 2014, according to documents. In doing so, it “enabled the company to obtain approximately $70.3 million in revenue,” officials said.
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“In the midst of a civil war, Lafarge made the unthinkable choice to put money into the hands of ISIS, one of the world’s most barbaric terrorist organizations, so that it could continue selling cement,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a press release.
Between 2010 and 2014, Lafarge operated a cement plant in the Jalabiyeh region of northern Syria. Shortly after the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, the company, Lafarge Cement Syria, paid armed factions to protect their employees and ensure the plant would stay open. They also sought to obtain an “economic advantage over their competitors in the Syrian cement market.”
“As Lafarge executives made clear in contemporaneous emails, their motives were primarily economic,” according to documents.
Executives purchased raw materials needed to manufacture cement from ISIS-controlled suppliers and paid monthly donations to ISIS and the al Nusra Front so their employees could pass safely through checkpoints, officials determined.
“To the brothers at the checkpoint of Qarah Qawzak Bridge, may Allah keep you safe,” an ISIS vehicle pass from April 2014 said, per the DOJ. “Kindly allow the employees of Lafarge Cement Company to pass through after completing the necessary work and after paying their dues to us.”
Lafarge also implored ISIS to impose restrictions on competitors selling Turkish cement in the area, a cheaper product than the Jalabiyeh Cement Plant’s cement.
“LCS executives made it clear to intermediaries negotiating with ISIS that, in exchange for LCS paying ISIS 750 Syrian Pounds per each ton of cement that it sold, they expected ISIS to take action against LCS’s competitors,” the document stated.
Documents highlighted that intermediaries were used to execute business that could not be linked back to Lafarge. The company also provided ISIS with periodic sales reports, though the name “Lafarge” did not appear on the documents, according to the DOJ.
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After Lafarge employees evacuated the Jalabiyeh Cement Plant in 2014, ISIS took control of the cement and sold it for approximately $3.21 million. The gains to all parties involved in the payoffs amounted to $80.54 million, the DOJ said.
The company told the New York Times “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.”
