French firm admits IS group payments in US court

Описание: (18 Oct 2022)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4402615
ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York – 18 October 2022
1. Wide of attorneys and law enforcement walking to podium
HEADLINE TEXT: French firm admits IS group payments in US court
2. STILL of sketch inside courtroom where Magali Anderson, Chief Sustainability and Innovation Officer of Holcim, center, reads a statement of guilt in open court flanked by her attorneys, David Sarratt, left, and Douglas Zolkind in Brooklyn Federal Court
ANNOTATION: French cement company Lafarge has pleaded guilty to paying millions of dollars to the Islamic State group so that a plant in Syria could remain open.
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Lisa Monaco, Deputy Attorney General of the United States:
"In the summer of 2014, the world watched in horror as ISIS murdered innocent journalists and aid workers. That same summer, Lafarge was in business with ISIS securing profits and market share and capitalizing on the group's brutality."
4. STILL of sketch inside the courtroom where Magali Anderson, Chief Sustainability and Innovation Officer of Holcim, stands, flanked by her attorneys David Sarratt and Douglas Zolkind, during the plea and sentencing of LaFarge in Brooklyn Federal Court
++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY COVERED++
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Lisa Monaco, Deputy Attorney General of the United States:
"Lafarge also hid its partnership with these terrorists through a web of fake contracts, falsified invoices, corrupt intermediaries and off system email accounts."
6. STILL of sketch William F. Kuntz, United States District Judge inside the courtroom
ANNOTATION: Prosecutors accused the company of making payments to the groups as they occupied swaths of Syria.
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York:
"These are the first companies ever charged by the Justice Department with providing material support to foreign terrorist organizations."
8. STILL of Breon Peace speaking at podium
ANNOTATION: The company also agreed to penalties totaling roughly $778 million.
9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Michael Driscoll, Assistant Director in Charge, FBI New York Field Office:
"Today's events show that corporations are no different from individuals. If you fund terrorism, you will face the consequences if you're willing to fund evil, regardless of whether you're an individual or a large entity. Please know that we are unrelenting in our focus and intent that you serve and you see justice."
10. Wide of attorneys and law enforcement walking out of room
STORYLINE:
French cement company Lafarge pleaded guilty Tuesday to paying millions of dollars to the Islamic State group so that a plant in Syria could remain open, a case that the Justice Department described as the first of its kind.
The company agreed to pay criminal fines of roughly $91 million and forfeit an additional $687 million for a total penalty of roughly $778 million.
Prosecutors accused the company of turning a blind eye to the conduct of the militant group, paying to it at a time when it was involved in torturing kidnapped Westerners.
“The defendants routed nearly six million dollars in illicit payments to two of the world’s most notorious terrorist organizations - ISIS and al-Nusrah Front in Syria - at a time those groups were brutalizing innocent civilians in Syria and actively plotting to harm Americans,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, the Justice Department's top national security official, said in a statement.
“There is simply no justification for a multi-national corporation authorizing payments to designated terrorist organization,” he added.

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