Lafarge cement group agrees to pay 778 million dollars to the US for supporting terrorist groups in Syria

The French cement group Lafargenow owned by the Swiss Holcimannounced that it agreed to pay a $778 million penalty to the United States and plead guilty to aiding terrorist organizations in Syria, including the group Islamic State between 2013 and 2014.

Lafarge has “accepted responsibility for the actions of its individual executives involved, whose behavior was in flagrant violation of codes of conduct,” the company said in a statement, in which it “deeply regrets” these acts.

The Justice Department of the United States recognized that the group had established adequate control procedures to detect and prevent any conduct of this nature and, therefore, considered that it was “not necessary” to appoint an independent monitor, Lafarge said.

In addition, she stressed that she continues to cooperate fully with the investigation of the French authorities on the same issue, but said she is willing to “defend herself against any legal action that she considers unjustified.”

The company is accused in France of “complicity in crimes against humanity” due to its activities until 2014 in Syria.

Between 2013 and 2014, through its Syrian subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria, he is suspected of paying several million euros to terrorist groups, including IS, as well as intermediaries, in order to keep a cement factory in operation. Jalabiya as the country sank into war.

The investigation by the French authorities estimated that these payments could have reached between 4.8 and 10 million euros to the Islamic State alone.