While nearly 1,000 Gold Star families and wounded veterans wait for justice, the federal government has allowed more than three years to pass with $777 million in Lafarge terrorism-penalty money still sitting in Washington instead of in victims’ hands.
Story Snapshot
- A French court found cement giant Lafarge and former executives guilty of aiding the Islamic State group, after the company admitted paying the terrorists millions of dollars.[1][3]
- Lafarge paid more than $777 million to the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2022 into an asset forfeiture fund meant to compensate Islamic State victims, including American military families.[1][3]
- Gold Star families and injured veterans say the DOJ has not distributed the money and are demanding Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche release the funds.[1]
- The DOJ says it is committed to compensating victims “to the fullest extent allowed by law,” but has not publicly explained the long delay or the rules governing payout.[1]
Lafarge’s Payments to the Islamic State Group and Terror Support Conviction
Reporting from France and the United States shows that between 2013 and 2014, Lafarge’s Syrian subsidiary paid more than $6.5 million to the Islamic State group to keep a cement plant operating inside territory the terrorists controlled.[1] A French court in April convicted Lafarge, the world’s largest cement company, of providing material assistance to a terrorist organization, sentencing its former chief executive officer to six years in prison and convicting eight other former executives.[1] Lafarge has acknowledged the verdict, calling its actions a “legacy issue” that violated company policy, and is appealing.[1]
Lawyers for victims say the cement produced at Lafarge’s Jalabiya plant in Syria, which was bought for about $680 million shortly before the Syrian uprising, was used to build tunnels and bunkers that strengthened the Islamic State group’s battlefield position.[1] Families of Americans killed and wounded in Syria argue that those payments and that concrete materially enabled attacks against United States forces and their partners.[1] The case marks the first time a corporation has faced United States charges for aiding a terrorist organization, raising the stakes for corporate behavior in war zones.[1]
The $777 Million Forfeiture Fund and Why Families Are Still Waiting
In October 2022, before the French conviction, Lafarge reached a settlement with the United States Department of Justice, paying more than $777 million into an asset forfeiture fund overseen by the department.[1][3] According to the reporting, this fund is intended to compensate victims of Islamic State attacks, including many American Gold Star families whose loved ones were killed in Syria.[1] The Department of Justice has held the money since that time, with no distribution to the nearly 1,000 plaintiffs who are suing Lafarge in federal court in the Eastern District of New York.[1]
One of the most visible plaintiffs is Chief Petty Officer Kenton Stacy, a United States Navy explosive ordnance technician who was left a quadriplegic after an Islamic State attack in Syria.[1] He, his wife, and their four children are among the families seeking compensation from the Lafarge fund.[1] Their attorney, United States Marine veteran Todd Toral, argues that Lafarge’s own admissions and the French criminal conviction make the company’s support for the Islamic State group an “undisputed fact,” creating a clear moral and legal basis to pay out the fund.[1] Toral calls the French ruling historic because it holds a corporation and its executives accountable for funding terrorism.[1]
Justice Department Silence, Legal Process, and Public Distrust
Gold Star families say the Biden-era Justice Department previously refused to release the money while the French case was pending, and now contend that the decision sits with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.[1] The Department of Justice, which controls the forfeited funds, issued a brief statement saying it is “dedicated to compensating all victims to the fullest extent allowed by law” and will follow appropriate processes, but it did not explain what specific steps remain or why the delay has stretched on since 2022.[1] No settlement text or distribution plan has been made public in the reporting.
This standoff underscores a deeper pattern that Americans across the political spectrum increasingly recognize: when large sums and powerful institutions are involved, government processes often move slowly and opaquely, even when the victims are families of fallen service members. Conservatives see another example of a bureaucracy that can seize and hold money but struggles to return it to citizens. Many liberals, for their part, see a multinational corporation convicted of abetting terror while victims still wait for relief, reinforcing doubts that elites ever truly pay a price.
What This Fight Reveals About Accountability After Terrorism
The Lafarge case highlights how post-terrorism justice can fracture into separate tracks: criminal charges, corporate settlements, asset forfeiture, and victim compensation. The French court has already found Lafarge guilty of aiding a terrorist organization, and the company has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in the United States, yet the people whose loved ones were killed or maimed are still in limbo.[1][3] Without public access to the United States settlement agreement, forfeiture orders, or claims rules, citizens are left guessing whether the holdup is legal complexity, bureaucratic inertia, or something worse.
For families who watched sons and daughters shipped to Syria under promises that their sacrifice mattered, the image of $777 million sitting in Washington while bills pile up at home feels like a betrayal that cuts beyond party labels. Their demand is straightforward: the government should not be quicker to take money from a convicted terror enabler than it is to share that money with the Americans who suffered the consequences of that support. Whether the Department of Justice now shows its work on the Lafarge fund will be an important test of whose side the system really serves.
Sources:
[1] Web – Military families demand DOJ release $777M Lafarge ISIS victim fund
[3] Web – Military families demand DOJ release $777M Lafarge ISIS victim fund
