Lafarge CEO and Seven Others Convicted and Sentenced in French Court for Financing Terrorism
April 30, 2026 - On April 13, 2026, a French trial convicted the chief executive officer, executive vice president, and four other executives of Lafarge S.A. (Lafarge), a Swiss French cement company headquartered in France, and Lafarge Cement Syria, S.A. (LCS), a Lafarge subsidiary located in Syria, for financing terrorism and violating international sanctions. Following the verdict, the defendants were sentenced to a range of seven years to 18 months and were ordered to pay a collective fine of 5.695 million euros, or about $6.7 million. Two Syrian intermediaries were also convicted and sentenced.
These convictions and sentences followed a six-week trial held in Paris, France.
"These defendants paid millions of dollars to not one—but two—foreign terrorist organizations for their own financial benefit. Their payments fueled the presence and capabilities of terrorists wishing to harm our country," said FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. "The FBI New York's Joint Terrorism Task Force is dedicated to holding accountable those who threaten our national security by becoming business partners with terrorists."
These charges stemmed from allegations that Lafarge and LCS paid the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and the al-Nusrah Front (ANF), both U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations. From 2013 to 2014, Lafarge paid approximately 5.6 million euros—about $6.5 million—to ISIS and ANF to keep its cement factory, LCS, in northern Syria operational. These payments served to prevent these terrorist groups from interfering with the plant's operations, kidnapping Lafarge employees, and harassing customers. Additionally, Lafarge and LCS paid ISIS to impose higher costs and disrupt the imports of a competitor selling Turkish cement in northern Syria.
On October 18, 2022, Lafarge and LCS pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to one or more foreign terrorist organizations out of the Eastern District of New York. The entities were also subject to a financial penalty of $777.28 million, comprising a criminal fine of $90.78 million and a forfeiture of $687 million. This served as the Department of Justice's first prosecution of a corporation in the United States for material support to terrorism charges and resulted in the largest financial penalty for a terrorism prosecution.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI's New York Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) with invaluable assistance from embedded task force officers from the New York Homeland Security Investigations and the New York City Police Department. In addition to protecting the homeland against terroristic threats, the JTTF is also responsible for combatting terrorism outside the continental United States.
FBI New York
FBI New York Press Office
ny-opa@fbi.gov
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
