New York, Europe Brief News – The US Department of Justice published a statement confirming that Lafarge S.A., a global building materials manufacturer, and its Syrian subsidiary, Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS) S.A., pleaded guilty to a one-count charge of conspiring to provide material support and resources in Daesh (also known as IS, ISIS, Islamic State) and al-Nusrah Front (ANF) in Northern Syria from 2013 to 2014.
Daesh and ANF are U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations. Following the guilty pleas, U.S. District Judge William F. Kuntz II sentenced the defendants to terms of probation. They will also pay financial penalties, including criminal fines and forfeiture of $777.78 million.
Daesh perpetrated genocide and crimes against humanity in Syria and Iraq. Among others, on August 3, 2014, members of Daesh launched a violent attack against Yazidis in Sinjar, Iraq. Daesh fighters killed hundreds, if not thousands of men. As part of the same campaign, Daesh fighters abducted boys to turn them into child soldiers. Over 2,700 Yazidi women and children are still missing and their fate is unknown.
A few days after the attack on Sinjar, Daesh also attacked the Ninevah Plains. It also forced over 120,000 people to flee for their lives in the middle of the night. Daesh committed murder, enslavement, deportation and forcible transfer of population, imprisonment, torture, abduction of women and children, exploitation, abuse, rape, sexual violence and forced marriage.
Confirmed Involvement
According to court documents, Lafarge S.A. and LCS “schemed to pay [Daesh] and ANF in exchange for permission to operate a cement plant in Syria from 2013 to 2014, which enabled LCS to obtain approximately $70.3 million in revenue.”
According to the statement from the Department of Justice, from August 2013 through October 2014, Lafarge and LCS are said to have paid Daesh and ANF, “through intermediaries, the equivalent of approximately $5.92 million, consisting of fixed monthly ‘donation’ payments to [Daesh] and ANF, payments to [Daesh]-controlled suppliers to purchase raw materials, and variable payments based on the amount of cement LCS sold. Lafarge and LCS also paid the equivalent of approximately $1.11 million to the third-party intermediaries for negotiating with and making payments to [Daesh] and ANF on Lafarge’s and LCS’s behalf.
In addition, when LCS eventually evacuated the Jalabiyeh Cement Plant in September 2014, [Daesh] took possession of cement that LCS had produced in furtherance of the conspiracy, and [Daesh] sold the cement at prices that would have yielded [Daesh] approximately $3.21 million.
As a result of the scheme, LCS obtained approximately $70.30 million in total sales revenue from August 2013 through 2014. The gains to all participants in the conspiracy, including LCS, the intermediaries and the terrorist groups, totaled approximately $80.54 million.”
This money is said to have been used to recruit members, wage war, and conduct barbaric atrocities.
