Lafarge scandal refers to the court case against Lafarge, the French cement company, for making payment to the armed terrorist groups Islamic State of Iraq and Levant and al-Nusra Front between 2013 – 2014. The scandal was first revealed by a French journalist Dorothée Myriam Kellou and was then followed by investigations by the French government. The company was found guilty of complicity in crimes against humanity and was ordered to pay $777.8 million over the issue.
Background
According to the New York Times, a representative of the French construction company Lafarge S.A. met with representatives of numerous militias from northern Syria in Gaziantep in the autumn of 2012, a city in southern Turkey, to negotiate an agreement. Executives from Lafarge agreed to pay terrorist organizations like the Islamic State on a monthly basis in order to protect their business. The extremists offered to stifle competition and provided papers to the company's drivers assuring safe passage for its cargo. The company was continuing payments even though the Islamic State was capturing, torturing, and killing prisoners. In August 2014, about a month after the Islamic State executed the American journalist James M. Foley, executives arranged the delivery of financial advances to the group as part of their agreement to keep the facility operating, according to emails seized by the U.S. authorities.
In June 2016, France launched an investigation into Lafarge's activities in Syria, in response to reports by a French journalist Dorothée Myriam Kellou. Kellou's reports were published in Le Monde and France 24 and revealed deals Lafarge made with a variety of armed groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorist group, in order to keep its cement plant in Syria operational. On September 19, 2014, ISIL took control of the factory. LafargeHolcim executives were investigated in 2017 for these claims in the civil and criminal courts. That action followed a complaint filed in November by Sherpa, a nongovernmental organization, accusing Lafarge of involvement in war crimes by conducting business with the terrorist organisation Islamic State in order to keep its Syria facility operating, despite UN sanctions against the group.
The French court inquiry discovered that between 2012 and 2014, the business paid up to 13 million euros (approximately $17.5 million at the time) to various armed groups, including the Islamic State, via its Syrian subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria. According to the study, the subsidiary paid these payments to maintain its cement facility in northeastern Syria operational despite the continuous fighting, kidnappings, and security concerns experienced by its workers. Lafarge tried to dismiss the claims that the payments were made not to support ISIS, but to allow Lafarge to continue commercial operations, and stated that the business and its executives could not be held liable for the actions of its Syrian subsidiary. Initially, the Paris Court of Appeals agreed with Lafarge.
In 2018, eight former firm leaders, including two former CEOs, were charged with supporting terrorists and endangering the lives of their employees in Syria. All of those executives resigned, and the firm merged in 2015 with the Swiss cement conglomerate Holcim. The former officials may face up to 10 years in jail if proven guilty of the accusation.