The Goa Spotlight Just another WordPress site
- Beth Timmins
- Business reporter, BBC News
Credit, Reuters
The self-proclaimed Islamic State has become one of the most feared jihadist groups in the world.
For the first time in history, a company has pleaded guilty in US court to supporting the so-called Islamic State group and another terrorist group.
This is French cement manufacturer Lafarge, which agreed on Tuesday (10/18) to pay a fine of US$ 777.8 million (about R$ 4.1 billion) for payments made to keep a factory in functioning in Syria after war broke out in 2011.
US prosecutors said that so far no company in the country had admitted to being guilty of aiding terrorists.
Lafarge said it “deeply regrets” what happened and “accepts responsibility for the executives involved”.
The cement maker, which was bought by Switzerland’s Holcim in 2015, said their behavior had been a “blatant violation” of Lafarge’s code of conduct.
Tax payment’
The company opened its factory in Jalabiya, near the Turkish border, in 2010, after an investment of US$ 680 million (about R$ 3.5 billion).
US prosecutors said Lafarge’s Syrian subsidiary paid Islamic State and another terrorist group, the al-Nusra Front, the equivalent of US$5.92 million (approximately R$31.2 million) to protect the factory’s employees. as the country’s civil war intensified.
Executives likened the deal to paying “taxes,” they said.
Credit, AFP
Transactions with the armed groups took place before the merger of Lafarge with Holcim
Lafarge eventually left the factory in September 2014, when the Islamic State took control of the city and the factory.
But before departing, the deals helped the company generate $70.3 million in sales, the promoters added.
Lafarge has previously admitted that bribes were paid after an internal investigation.
Deputy US Attorney General Lisa Monaco said on Tuesday that the company’s actions “show that corporate crime has reached a new high and a very dark place.”
“Business with terrorists cannot be normal business,” he added.
In a statement, Lafarge’s new owner, Holcim, said none of the pipelines involved Holcim, “which has never operated in Syria.”
He added that former Lafarge executives involved in the bribery had hidden this from Holcim, as well as from outside auditors.
Eric Olsen, who was CEO from 2015 to 2017, resigned after an investigation into Lafarge’s activities in Syria.
At the time, Olsen said he had not been involved in any wrongdoing and was leaving to offer “serenity” to the company.
The US Department of Justice said senior Lafarge executives were involved in the deals and knew there was a risk of running afoul of authorities.
Executives tried to demand that the Islamic State not include the name “Lafarge” in documents documenting the deals – and many involved in the scheme also used personal email addresses, rather than their corporate emails, to carry out the conspiracy, according to the department.
Credit, Reuters
‘It has no precedent and no justification’, said prosecutor Breon Peace
Lafarge’s transactions finally surfaced in 2016 on a website run by a Syrian opposition group.
Breon Peace, prosecutor for the eastern district of New York, where the case was filed, said the conduct “by a Western corporation was appalling and without precedent or justification.”
“Defendants paid millions of dollars to the [Estado Islâmico]a terrorist group that would otherwise operate on a tight budget, millions of dollars that [o Estado Islâmico] could use to recruit members, wage war on governments and carry out brutal terrorist attacks around the world, including against American citizens,” he said at the press conference in which he announced that the company had pleaded guilty.
Lafarge also faces charges of complicity in crimes against humanity in France for its activities in Syria, but the company denies the allegations.
