Displaying items by tag: Investigation

India: Police have arrested the owner of a factory near Gaurichak in Bihar manufacturing counterfeit cement. Over 5000 bags of cement were seized, according to the Telegraph of India newspaper. Cement bags falsely branded as Birla Gold, Lafarge and other companies were found at the site. Packaging machines were also impounded. Police said the unit was collecting expired bags of cement and reusing them. The investigation will now move on to finding contractors who have been selling the fake products.

Turkey: Göltaş Çimento and AS Çimento are being investigated by the Turkish Competition Authority for alleged price fixing of cement. The government body says that its preliminary investigation in early May 2018 has discovered ‘serious’ findings. Further investiation will follow to examine whether the law has been broken and whether fines are applicable. Both cement producers operate plants in the southwest of the country.

Vietnam: Phuc Son Cement is under investigation for exploiting minerals. An inspection report by the State Audit Office has accused the cement producer of using mineral volumes higher than the amount it was licenced for in 1996, according to the Viet Nam News newspaper and Dantri. The report has been passed to the prime minister and the chairwoman of the National Assembly. The company has also been accused of causing pollution from its mining activities and not cooperating with the authorities over the investigation.

The State Audit Office estimates that Phuc Son Cement could face a US$11.7m fine for illegally exploiting natural resources and causing environmental damage. Phuc Son Cement, a joint venture between Taiwan’s Lucky Cement and a local partner, operates one of the largest plants in the country.

Syria: An investigation by the Agence France Presse has found that one local employee of Lafarge in Syria was killed and another has been missing for five years. According to the news agency, Syrian mechanic Yassin Ismail, who was employed at Lafarge's plant at Jalabiya, was kidnapped by jihadist fighters in 2013. He was subsequently executed, according to relatives and former work colleagues. Another mechanic Abdul al-Homada, was disappeared in Aleppo in 2013 while attempting to collect his salary.

LafargeHolcim is being investigated in France over claims that Lafarge Syria had paid extremist groups to keep its Jalabiya cement plant operational after the outbreak of war in Syria. Six former Lafarge executives have been charged with financing a terrorist organisation. Those managers could also face prosecution for endangering the lives of their local Syrian employees after 11 of them filed their own lawsuit alleging that Lafarge put financial profit before their personal safety.

US: Mexico’s Cemex says that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating whether the cement producer violated the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in relation to a new cement plant being built by Cemex Colombia at Maceo in Antioquia. Previously, the cement producer received a subpoena from the US Securities and Exchange Commission in late 2016 as part of a probe also checking whether the FCPA had been breached.

Cemex says it is cooperating with both requests. However, it also said that it does not know how long either investigation will last or what impact the results of either investigation might have upon the company in terms of eventual sanctions.

In late September 2016 Cemex fired several senior staff members in relation to the Maceo project and its subsidiary’s chief executive resigned. This followed an internal audit and investigation into payments worth around US$20.5m made to a non-governmental third party in connection with the acquisition of the land, mining rights, and benefits of the tax free zone for the project.

India: The government of Haryana is investigating the transfer of around 122 acres belonging to the Associated Cement Companies’ (ACC) closed Bhupendra Cement plant to a Mumbai-based builder. According to Kalka MLA Latika Sharma, the land’s lease said it could only be used for industrial use, according to the Times of India newspaper. However, the builder it has been transferred to intends to build a town. Education minister Ram Bilas Sharma Sharma told the state congress that the Haryana Police had gathered ‘strong’ material on alleged irregularities in the entire issue and the government had decided to get the matter probed by the state vigilance bureau. The Bhupendra Cement plant at Surajpur near Pinjore was originally built in 1937. It was closed in 1997 on environmental grounds.

France: Lafarge Syria’s former director Christian Herrault has claimed that Eric Chevallier, the former ambassador to Syria, knew about payments to armed groups by the cement producer. French investigators questioned Herrault in the presence of Chevallier, according to a source quoted by the Agence France Presse. Herrault allegedly said that he had met Chevallier several times, that he knew about the situation and that he said that the company should stay as, “…these problems won't last long."

Jean-Claude Veillard, the group's former security boss, has said he regularly informed French intelligence services about its operations in the region. Investigators have also found evidence of meetings between Lafarge and diplomats, including a note suggesting that one took place in Paris in January 2013.

The investigation is attempting to determine whether LafargeHolcim’s predecessor company Lafarge Syria paid terrorist groups in Syria and how much managers knew about the situation.