By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – French cement maker Lafarge pleaded guilty on Tuesday to U.S. charges of supporting the Islamic State by keeping a factory running in Syria after conflict broke out in 2011, according to a court hearing.
The admission in Brooklyn federal court marked the first time a company has pleaded guilty in the United States to charges of providing material support to a terrorist organization. Lafarge, which became part of Swiss-listed Holcim in 2015, is also facing charges of complicity in crimes against humanity in Paris.
Lafarge agreed to forfeit $687 million and pay a fine of $90 million in its guilty plea.
The cement maker previously admitted after an internal investigation that its Syrian subsidiary paid armed groups to help protect staff at the plant. But it had denied charges that it was complicit in crimes against humanity.
Holcim has said that events concerning Lafarge’s Syria plant go against its values and were concealed from the board at the time of the 2015 merger.
Rights groups in France in 2017 accused Lafarge of paying 13 million euros ($12.79 million) to armed groups including Islamic State militants to keep operating in Syria between 2011 and 2015.
The SIX Swiss Exchange suspended trading in Holcim shares before the news.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Lisa Shumaker)
