A Paris court on Monday convicted French cement giant Lafarge and eight former executives of financing terrorism, ruling the company paid millions of dollars to jihadist groups including the Islamic State and Al-Nusrah Front to keep a Syrian plant running during the country’s civil war . Former CEO Bruno Lafont was sentenced to six years in prison, effective immediately, while seven other former executives received prison terms ranging from 18 months to seven years . The court also fined the company 1.125 million euros ($1.32 million) for the terrorism charge and levied a joint 4.57 million euros ($5.35 million) customs fine against Lafarge and four executives for violating international financial sanctions . Investigators showed Lafarge paid approximately $5.9 million to three terrorist organisations between August 2013 and October 2014, with the money flowing through monthly “security payments” and raw material purchases that investigators said helped fund the 2015 terror attacks in France .
The court found that Lafarge, now owned by Swiss group Holcim, sought to keep its $680 million Jalabiya plant in northern Syria open despite the escalating war, evacuating foreign staff in 2012 but leaving Syrian employees behind to run the facility . The presiding judge, Isabelle Prevost-Desprez, said the payments took “the form of a genuine commercial partnership with the Islamic State” and were “essential in enabling the terrorist organisation to gain control of Syria’s natural resources, allowing it to finance terrorist acts within the region and those planned abroad, particularly in Europe” . The company established the payment system to access raw materials from IS-controlled quarries and to allow free movement for company trucks and employees, paying intermediaries to facilitate the transactions . During the trial, prosecutors said 69-year-old Lafont “gave clear instructions” to keep the plant operational, a decision they called “staggering in its cynicism” .
Sherpa, a French anti-corruption NGO that filed a criminal complaint against Lafarge in 2016 alongside former Syrian employees, told the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project that the verdict is “historic and highly symbolic,” marking the first time a French multinational has been convicted of financing terrorism . Anna Kiefer, Litigation and Advocacy Officer at Sherpa, said: “Sherpa hopes this decision will send a strong message to companies operating in conflict zones, that they could be held accountable in court for crimes related to their actions abroad” . The case follows a 2022 US conviction in which Lafarge pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to designated terrorist organisations and agreed to pay a $778 million fine, the first time a company had faced that charge .
A second case against Lafarge concerning allegations of complicity in crimes against humanity is still ongoing in France . Lafont’s lawyer confirmed he would appeal the ruling, while Holcim, which took over Lafarge in 2015, has said it had no knowledge of the Syria dealings . The verdict comes more than a decade after the conduct occurred, with an inquiry opened in France in 2017 following media reports and legal complaints from former Syrian employees . The ruling sends a powerful warning to multinational corporations operating in conflict zones: financing terrorist groups for business advantage carries consequences that no fine can erase.
