Faced with possible closure of Lafarge corporation's operations in Syria, executives Bruno Lafont and Christian Herrault paid some $6.5 to the Islamic State and other terrorist groups in Syria to keep the company's facilities open. Last week, a French court sentenced the two executives to prison for financing terrorism, the first time an entire corporation has been tried and found liable for this crime.
At the Nuremberg trials, industrialists who worked with the Nazis claimed that they were just maximizing profits as corporations do, and were ignorant when it came to the extent of the regime's atrocities. Lafarge lawyers tried a similar defense, but it failed to convince the court.
Corporations are structured to deflect responsibility. When officers make operation decisions that have a profound negative impact on health, the environment, product safety, or any other factor, they can simply say that such harms are a regrettable consequence of following their ultimate directive, which is to maximize profits for shareholders.
Kudos to the court for refusing to excuse immoral business-as-usual, and for passing sentence on two executives who may never have felt a twinge when it came to putting profits over human rights.
Now the question is whether this case set a precedent for similar cases against BNP Paribas, Lundin Oil, or corporations enabling genocide in Gaza, or whether--especially in the US--it will spark a backlash driven by a nervous corporate elite and compliant lawmakers.
At the Nuremberg trials, industrialists who worked with the Nazis claimed that they were just maximizing profits as corporations do, and were ignorant when it came to the extent of the regime's atrocities. Lafarge lawyers tried a similar defense, but it failed to convince the court.
Corporations are structured to deflect responsibility. When officers make operation decisions that have a profound negative impact on health, the environment, product safety, or any other factor, they can simply say that such harms are a regrettable consequence of following their ultimate directive, which is to maximize profits for shareholders.
Kudos to the court for refusing to excuse immoral business-as-usual, and for passing sentence on two executives who may never have felt a twinge when it came to putting profits over human rights.
Now the question is whether this case set a precedent for similar cases against BNP Paribas, Lundin Oil, or corporations enabling genocide in Gaza, or whether--especially in the US--it will spark a backlash driven by a nervous corporate elite and compliant lawmakers.
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