‘SHARE THE CAKE’

Feds Say Cement Company Will Pay $778M for Propping Up ISIS

It’s the first time a company has pleaded guilty in the United States to working with terrorists.

The French cement company Lafarge pleaded guilty Tuesday in a Brooklyn court to taking advantage of the Islamic State’s iron grip on Syria between August 2013 and October 2014, working with the terrorist organization to thwart its competition and make $70.3 million in revenue. Lafarge and its Syrian subsidiary, driven by potential economic advantages, coordinated with the al-Nusrah Front and ISIS to remain open amid the civil war, paying dues to ISIS’s armed forces and buying materials from terrorist-controlled suppliers while the violent militia hurt Lafarge’s competition. The company eventually entered into a revenue sharing agreement with ISIS, offering chunks of its sales totaling nearly $6 million. Some of the money was routed through New York. In emails described by New York prosecutors, executives at the company likened the monthly payments to “taxes” and at one point discussed how they could “share the cake” with ISIS. The company, whose admission marks the first time a company has plead guilty in the U.S. to working with terrorists, will have to pay out $778 million in criminal fines and forfeiture.