Lafarge Convicted of Terror Financing as Former CEO Is Sentenced to Prison

A Paris court has convicted cement giant Lafarge of funding terrorism via its Syrian subsidiary, handing the company a fine while sentencing its former Chief Executive Officer, Bruno Lafont, to a prison term.

In the landmark judgment, the court ruled on Monday that Lafarge paid protection money directly to ISIL (ISIS) and other armed groups.

It said this breached European sanctions to operate in northern Syria during the country’s civil war between 2013 and 2014.

The court ordered Lafarge to pay a fine of 1.12 million euros ($1.32m) and forfeit 30 million euros ($35.1m) worth of its assets.

An additional fine was levied for having disregarded international sanctions.

Eight former Lafarge employees were found guilty of financing “terrorist” organisations, including former Lafont, who was ⁠sentenced to six years in jail. 

His lawyer has said that he plans to appeal.

The company’s former deputy managing director, Christian Herrault, was sentenced to five years in jail. 

Other former employees were handed fines and sentences ranging from one to seven years.

The presiding judge, Isabelle Prevost-Desprez, said the payments made by Lafarge helped to strengthen groups that carried out deadly attacks in Syria and beyond.

Prevost-Desprez said: “It is clear to the court that the sole purpose of the funding of a terrorist organisation was to keep the Syrian plant running for economic reasons. 

“Payments to terrorist entities enabled Lafarge to continue its operations.

“These payments took the form of a genuine commercial partnership with (ISIL).”

Lafarge paid a total of 5.59 million euros ($6.55m) to armed groups in Syria during the war, including to ISIL (ISIS) and the al-Nusra Front, which was formerly affiliated with incumbent Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Both outfits were designated “terrorist” groups by the European Union between 2013 and September 2014.

Lafarge’s plant in Jalabiya, located in northern Syria and bought by the company in 2008 for $680 million, began ⁠operating in 2010, months before the beginning of the Syrian uprising in early 2011.

Employees were ⁠housed in the nearby town of Manbij and needed to cross the Euphrates River to access the plant. Among the payments, the court found more than 800,000 euros ($937,000) were paid to secure safe passage.

Another 1.6 million euros ($1.87m) were used to purchase source materials from quarries that were under ISIL control, the court said.

The case signified the first time a company has been tried in France for financing “terrorism”, but the inquiry against Lafarge has been running since 2017.

In 2022, the company saw a conviction on charges of crimes against humanity over the alleged payoffs to ISIL (ISIS) and other armed groups confirmed by a French court.

At the time, Lafarge, now part of Swiss building materials conglomerate Holcim, acknowledged that it had paid nearly 13 million euros ($15.2m) to middlemen in order to keep its Syrian cement factory running during the war, after other French firms had pulled out of the country.

The company claimed that it bore no responsibility for the money winding up in the hands of armed groups, and in 2019 won a court ruling that threw out the charge of complicity in crimes against humanity. 

However, an appeals court confirmed the original ruling.

A second case against the cement company, concerning allegations of complicity in crimes against humanity, is still ongoing in France.

In a separate case in the United States, Lafarge admitted in 2022 that its Syrian subsidiary paid $6 million to ISIL and the al-Nusra Front to allow employees, customers and suppliers to pass through checkpoints. 

The company paid $778 million‌ forfeiture and fines as part of a plea agreement.

In the case ruled upon on Monday, which can be appealed, Lafarge was deemed guilty of funding “terrorist” organisations with “a single aim: profit”, according to the closing argument of the French national counter-terrorism prosecutor’s office (PNAT).

In response, the cement group said in a statement that it “acknowledges the court’s ⁠finding, which concerns a legacy matter involving conduct that occurred more than a decade ago and was ⁠in flagrant violation of Lafarge’s Code of Conduct”.

“The decision is an important milestone in Lafarge SA’s actions to address this legacy matter responsibly and the company is reviewing the court’s reasoning,” Lafarge said.