Lafarge, a renowned name in the corporate world and a leading manufacturer of cement pleaded guilty to a US charge that it paid money to groups designated as terrorists by the United States, including Daesh.
In the United States, for the first time a corporate giant pleaded guilty in Brooklyn federal court to charges of providing material support to a terrorist group.
Lafarge paid nearly $12.8 million (13 million euros ) to middlemen to keep its Syrian cement plant operational in 2013 and 2014, although other firms had pulled out of the country, TRT World reported today.
Lafarge SA and its defunct subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria “have agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiring to provide material support to designated foreign terrorist organisations in Syria,” it said.
“Lafarge and LCS accepted responsibility of the individual executives involved, whose behaviour was in flagrant violation of Lafarge’s Code of Conduct.
The company said, “We deeply regret that this conduct occurred and have worked with the US Department of Justice to resolve this matter.”
Lafarge is also facing charges of complicity in crimes against humanity in Paris for keeping a factory running in Syria in 2011.
