An intercepted telephone call involving the former boss of French cement firm Lafarge, which is accused of funding terrorist group Islamic State to keep its Syrian cement plant in production, shows the extend of the “worry” that has gripped the company, which has since become a Franco-Swiss multinational. Just how far – and to whom – will the current judicial investigation extend? Fabrice Arfi reports.
It was Friday the 13th, October 2017. Four months earlier Bruno Lafont, 61, had left as co-chairman and director of the world cement giant LafargeHolcim which has an annual turnover of 30 billion euros and which was formed by the 2015 merger of the French firm Lafarge and its Swiss counterpart Holcim.