Families of US soldiers and aid workers who were killed or injured by Daesh and other terrorist organizations have filed a lawsuit against Lafarge, the world’s largest producer of cement, for providing funding to Takfiri organizations in Iraq and Syria.
According to the court document submitted on Thursday to the district court for the Eastern District of New York, Lafarge filed the lawsuit after being found guilty of bribery and admitting to paying the Takfiri terrorist organizations Daesh and al-Nusra Front in order to continue doing business in northern Syria last year.
The building materials manufacturer Lafarge, which merged with Holcim (HOLN. S) admitted to offering nearly $6 million in cash to the two terrorist organizations in 2015, according to court documents, and agreed to pay $778 million in forfeiture and fines as part of a plea bargain in October.
“Lafarge had a long history of backing both ANF and ISIS (Daesh). It ran a profitable cement plant in northern Syria and determined that paying off terrorists there was the best way to preserve its financial gains from the plant, according to the court document.
It also stated that “Defendants’ payments supported the terrorist attacks that were directed at Plaintiffs and their families.”
In the lawsuit that seeks punitive damages and compensation, Lafarge SA is not the only defendant. Also named as defendants are Bruno Lafont, the company’s former chairman, and other executives.
The complaint stated that when the court accepted Lafarge’s guilty plea the previous year, it “found its crime impacted the victims of terrorist acts.”
It continued, “Lafarge is civilly liable under the same statute to the victims of its criminal conspiracy, just as Lafarge is guilty of a crime under the Anti-Terrorism Act.”
The claimants include 10 military personnel killed or injured by Daesh and al-Nusra Front attacks in Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere, as well as the families of US aid workers and journalists, including Steven Sotloff and James Foley, who were both beheaded by Daesh on camera in 2014.
When Daesh started to seize control of large tracts of land in lightning attacks in both countries nearly ten years ago, it started a terror campaign in both Iraq and Syria.
In the interim, the US has stationed troops and military hardware in Syria under the pretext of battling ISIS without receiving approval from the government in Damascus or a UN mandate.
According to the US military, the purpose of its presence in Syria is to keep Daesh from seizing control of the region’s oilfields.
Damascus, however, maintains that the illegal deployment is intended to plunder the natural resources of the Arab nation.
