Law Lafarge executive charged with financing jihadists - In a never before seen event, a CEO is held accountable for breaking the law

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PARIS: An executive at Swiss-French cement-maker Lafarge was charged Friday with indirectly financing jihadists through the company's activities in war-torn Syria, his lawyer said.

Lafarge stands accused of paying the Islamic State group and other militants through a middleman in order to allow the company's factory in Jalabiya, northern Syria, to continue to operate.

The company is also suspected of using fake consulting contracts to buy fuel from IS, which took control of most of Syria's strategic oil reserves in June 2013.

Frederic Jolibois, who took over as manager of the factory in 2014, has been charged with financing terrorism and violating an EU embargo on Syrian oil, his lawyer Jean Reinhart said.

Bruno Pescheux, Jolibois' predecessor as factory chief between 2008 and 2014, and Lafarge security boss Jean-Claude Veillard were also in court on Friday facing possible charges.

Jolibois has admitted to buying oil from "non-governmental organisations", notably Kurdish and Islamist groups, in violation of the EU embargo declared in 2011.

Pescheux has meanwhile admitted Lafarge paid up to $100,000 (84,000 euros) a month to Syrian tycoon Firas Tlass, a former minority shareholder who gave cash to armed factions in order to keep the factory open.

IS would have received around $20,000, Pescheux estimated.

The three are the first to be detained in the probe by French anti-terror and financial crimes judges, who are also looking at whether Lafarge took adequate measures to protect Syrian employees.

Local staff stayed on site while executives fled Damascus for the safety of Cairo in summer 2011. Other foreign workers were evacuated in the months that followed.

Lafarge, which merged in 2015 with Swiss building supplies company Holcim, hung on in Syria for two years after most French companies had left as IS made major territorial gains.

The jihadists, who have since lost huge swathes of territory in international military offensives, eventually took over the Jalabiya plant in September 2014.

The Lafarge investigation has gained pace in recent weeks, with police carrying out an extensive search at the company's Paris headquarters in November.

Three former Syrian employees were also flown out from Syria to give evidence in late September.

The plant in question is located near the city of Kobane.

Here is the LinkedIn account of the executive being charged. link

 

[AnOminous]

Note: France is now officially less cucked than Sweden.

 

[Paralethal]

Lafarge rhymes with DeBarge. Coincidence?

 

[KM 749]

Cases like these make me want France to bring back the guillotine.

There are so many people directly harming the country in such atrocious ways whose treasonous tops deserve to be lopped off.

 

[break these cuffs]

It was great to see this. I saw people defending them saying "well of course they had to pay AQ/IS to operate, the plant was in their territory". Hey, how about you quit trying to cut a profit in a fucking warzone where everybody involved is a fucking asshole.

 

[AnOminous]

It was great to see this. I saw people defending them saying "well of course they had to pay AQ/IS to operate, the plant was in their territory". Hey, how about you quit trying to cut a profit in a fucking warzone where everybody involved is a fucking asshole.

That's like saying it's okay to be a death camp operator if you're in Nazi Germany.

 

[XYZpdq]

That's like saying it's okay to be a death camp operator if you're in Nazi Germany.

Did they give the option to not work death camps?
Not meant in a bitchy way, just wondering.

I never really thought about it, but I can't see them being too cool with complaints about your work environment.

I could see them being like "fucking Hans keeps puking go send him to do payroll over on the other side of town, and get some more sawdust" for the sake of efficiency, though.

 

[Ineedahero]

Lol Frederic jollyboys

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

Lafarge rhymes with DeBarge. Coincidence?

He felt the beat of the rhythm of the night

 

[Sperglord Dante]

You know, when a group of armed and extremely dangerous sociopaths try to extort your business, which just happens to be in their god forsaken lawless turf you can't just say n-

The company is also suspected of using fake consulting contracts to buy fuel from IS, which took control of most of Syria's strategic oil reserves in June 2013.

Oh, fuck these assholes.