French cement firm Lafarge admits paying Isis £15 million to keep factory open

A Lafarge facility in the desert near Raqqa in Syria (John Wreford/Alamy/PA)

French cement company Lafarge has pleaded guilty to paying 17 million US dollars (£15 million) to the so-called Islamic State group so a factory in Syria could remain open.

The charges were announced in a New York City federal court.

The allegations involve conduct earlier investigated by authorities in France.

The case was described by the US Justice Department as the first of its kind.

A Lafarge site in Paris in 2017 (Christophe Ena/AP)

Lafarge has agreed to pay fines of roughly 91 million dollars (£80.5 million) and forfeit an additional 687 million dollars (£608 million) for a total penalty of around 778 million dollars (£688.5 million).

Prosecutors accused the firm of turning a blind eye to Isis’s conduct, paying to it at a time when it was involved in torturing kidnapped westerners.

“The defendants routed nearly six million dollars (£5.3 million) in illicit payments to two of the world’s most notorious terrorist organisations — Isis and al-Nusrah Front in Syria — at a time those groups were brutalising innocent civilians in Syria and actively plotting to harm Americans,” assistant attorney general Matthew Olsen, the Justice Department’s top national security official, said in a statement.

“There is simply no justification for a multi-national corporation authorising payments to (a) designated terrorist organisation,” he added.