Historical guilty pleas of two companies, multinational construction conglomerate Lafarge S.A., and its Syrian subsidiary Lafarge cement Syria S.A had committed a corporate crime in 2013 and 2014. In agreement with the defendants, the total penalty of 77.778 crore needs to be paid by the two companies for conspiring to provide materials support to foreign terrorist organizations i.e. the Islamic State of Iraq and al-sham better known as ISIS and Al Nushra Front or ANF.
The operation and conviction of Lafarge
On Tuesday, in a U.S. court, the cement maker of France, Lafarge has been pleaded guilty to a charge of supplying materials to the terrorist organizations of Iraq, who are allegedly doing harm to people of the U.S. and its national security.
These payments seem to be offered to terrorist groups, addressed by the U.S., which includes the Islamic State. This has been offered in terms of the continuation of business and its operations in Syria by Lafarge. The court session occurred in Brooklyn federal court, which marked the admission of a company for the first time for the charges of delivering materials to support the commissioned terrorist organisations. In 2015, Lafarge made its part among the listed Holcim (HOLN.S) of Switzerland, which has now agreed to recompense 77.778 crores in forfeiture along with fines according to the plea agreement.
The prosecutors of the U.S. declared that Lafarge as well as its Syrian subsidiary have paid approximately 592 crore between the years of 2013 and 2014. Through intermediaries, they had served the Islamic State along with al Nusra Front. In order to allow customers, employees as well as suppliers for passing the checkpoints, they have aided them with waiving fees after the break of civil conflict in Syria.
The revenue from these arrangements for Lafarge has been around 70 crores as per sales. The prosecutors added they have earned this amount from a single operation-based plant in the area of Northern Syria. In this matter, Brooklyn’s top federal prosecutor, Breon Peace has uttered to the reporters; “Lafarge made a deal with the devil,” as per the guilty plea. He added, “This conduct by a Western corporation was appalling and has no precedent or justification.”
History of the beholders and the operation
Lafarge was evacuated from the cement plant eventually in the month of September 2014, as per the U.S. prosecutors. In the meantime, Islamic State possessed the remaining cement. Then, they sold the chunk for 32.1 crores.
On Tuesday, Chief Sustainability and Innovation Officer of LafargeHolcim, Magali Anderson expressed in court that in 2013, from the month of August to November 2014, Lafarge’s former executives “knowingly and wilfully agreed to participate in a conspiracy to make and authorise payments intended for the benefit of various armed groups in Syria”.
Holcim mentioned its non-participation in any of the conduct, in a statement, “which has never operated in Syria, or any Lafarge operations or employees in the United States, and it is in stark contrast with everything that Holcim stands for.” Thus, Holcim stated that former executives of Lafarge were involved in those conduct and concealed those operations from external auditors as well as from Holcim.
Without mentioning Holcim, Lisa Monaco, Deputy Attorney General of the U.S. explained to the reporters that the company, which has acquired Lafarge, did not accomplish their activities as the Syria operations are majorly diligent. None of the Lafarge executives were alleged in the U.S. Lisa Monaco mentioned that the authorities of France have arrested a few executives, who were involved.
They have still not provided any names in the U.S. court records as the referral has specified the six unnamed executives of Lafarge. While in court, Magali Anderson said that the responsible individuals for this conduct had not been working with the company, since 2017. On the other hand, the initial chief executive, after the merger, Eric Olsen, resigned in 2017 when the firm acknowledged its involvement in paying Syrian armed groups. Olsen stated that in the meantime, he was not present there as well as he was not aware of any kind of such payments.
Also, Sherpa, a human rights group based in Paris, filed a charge in France against Lafarge, on Tuesday. This complaint prompted an investigation into criminal attire to find out whether the company was being involved in any kind of crimes, which are against humanity along with criticising those plea agreements. While Lafarge had totally denied such charges that it was not related to anything in the spectrum of crimes against humanity.
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