French cement company pleads guilty to supporting IS

Lafarge, a French cement maker, has pleaded guilty in America to supporting Islamic State and other terror groups.

The company will pay a $777.8m (£687.2m) penalty for making payments to keep a factory running in Syria after the war broke out in 2011.

This is the first time a company has pleaded guilty to aiding terrorists in the US.

Lafarge opened a plant in Jalabiya near the Turkish border in 2010. In 2011, they paid Islamic State and al Nusra Front to protect staff at the plant, during the war.

Prosecutors said the company paid the equivalent of $5.92 million. The plant was evacuated in 2014, when Islamic State took control of the factory and the town. According to prosecutors, the deals helped the company make $70.3 million in sales.

US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said on Tuesday that the company's actions "reflect corporate crime that has reached a new low and a very dark place."

"Business with terrorists cannot be business as usual."

According to reports, Lafarge Executives tried to make sure Islamic State did not use the name Lafarge on documents and personal emails were used instead of corporate ones.

Documents were also backdated to imply that negotiations with Islamic State had taken place before a UN resolution calling on member states to prohibit doing business with Islamic State.

Image: Wikimedia/Phil Sangwell