Overview
- Lafarge and eight former executives, security staff and intermediaries face proceedings through December 9 on charges of financing a terrorist enterprise, with some also accused of violating international sanctions.
- Investigators allege the Syrian subsidiary paid millions of euros in 2013–2014 to ISIS and Jabhat al-Nosra through fees, monthly “donations,” and purchases to secure movement and raw materials despite an EU embargo from June 28, 2013.
- One Syrian intermediary is absent under an international arrest warrant, and Holcim, which absorbed Lafarge in 2015, distances itself from conduct predating the merger.
- A total of 241 civil parties, including NGOs Sherpa and ECCHR and former Syrian employees, have joined the case seeking accountability and damages.
- Lafarge pleaded guilty in the United States in 2022 to roughly $6 million in payments and accepted a $778 million penalty, a plea some French defendants dispute as evidence, while potential French fines include up to €1.125 million for terrorist financing and up to ten times the amount for embargo breaches.