Lafarge to plead guilty to funding ISIS, pay $700m fine

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Lafarge Cement, the French company that operated in Syria and Iraq, agreed on Tuesday to plead guilty to US federal criminal charges related to the nearly $17 million it paid to fund the terror group ISIS from 2012 to 2014 to keep its plant in Syria going, CNBC reported on Tuesday.  

Consequently, Lafarge agreed to pay a fine of more than $700 million.

While no individuals have been charged so far, the investigation is still ongoing.

Switzerland’s Holcim bought Lafarge in 2015, which French authorities indicted in 2018 on charges of being complicit in crimes again humanity.

The company has been reported in 2021 to have funded ISIS with 13 million euros.

Back at the time, Anadolu Agency revealed that Lafarge not only briefed French intelligence about its support and financing of ISIS and other terror organizations, but it also provided the French government with news and information about northern Syria. The French government, with said information, enabled coordination with ISIS. 

A discussion on the relationship between Lafarge and ISIS was carried out in 2018 - an intelligence officer, code-named AM 02, appeared in court and gave a statement. According to the court transcript, the intelligence officer admitted that Lafarge was his source of information in Syria and that the French secret services took advantage of the cement factory in Syria. He also admitted that Lafarge provided cement to armed groups in Syria between 2012 and 2014, including ISIS and the Nusra Front.

However, despite all this, the French intelligence did not warn the company that this was a criminal act - there has been no sign of condemnation for the sponsor of terrorism. 

Over 30 meetings were carried out between Lafarge and the French domestic, foreign, and military intelligence services between 2013 and 2014 alone.

Read more: Documents Expose Lafarge's Funding of ISIS in Syria, French Government Enabled It