What's New: A French Court Just Handed Families a Loaded Gun

When we last covered this story, the $777 million Lafarge paid to the DOJ was sitting untouched. That was already an outrage. Now there's a new development that makes the DOJ's silence even harder to defend.

In April 2026, a French court convicted Lafarge S.A. — the world's largest cement manufacturer — of providing material support to a terror group. The former CEO received a 6-year prison sentence. Eight former Lafarge employees were found guilty. This is a foreign court independently reaching the same conclusion U.S. prosecutors documented in their 2022 guilty plea.

Lafarge paid ISIS. Two separate legal systems, on two continents, reached that conclusion.

Lafarge is appealing the French verdict. The company called the matter a "legacy matter" that was "in flagrant violation of Lafarge's Code of Conduct." Translation: they're sorry, except in court.

The Families Are Now Speaking Out — By Name

Chief Petty Officer Kenton Stacy, a Navy Explosives Ordnance Disposal specialist, was injured in Raqqa, Syria in November 2017 while clearing a hospital ISIS had booby-trapped. He is now a quadriplegic. His wife Lindsey Stacy spoke directly to Fox News alongside her husband, who just underwent another surgery — nine years after his injuries.

"They were essentially funneling money to fund terrorists and ISIS and all these heinous crimes and evil acts," Lindsey Stacy told Fox News.

She also noted their oldest son has cerebral palsy and requires 24/7 care. This family is managing catastrophic compounding burdens — medical, emotional, financial — while the DOJ sits on nearly $800 million that Lafarge already admitted is blood money.

President Trump praised Stacy's service in his 2018 State of the Union Address, recognizing Army Staff Sergeant Justin Peck, who ran into the booby-trapped building to rescue Kenton and performed over two hours of CPR to keep him alive. Trump said, "All of America salutes you."

That was seven years ago. America saluted. Then apparently forgot.

The Legal Machinery: Nearly 1,000 Plaintiffs, Zero Distributions

Attorney Todd To — whose firm represents the plaintiffs — stated the core fact bluntly: "They were killed in Syria by a gruesome terrorist organization that was funded in part by Lafarge. And that's not an allegation. That is undisputed fact. Lafarge pled guilty to doing that in 2022."

Nearly 1,000 plaintiffs, most of them military families, are part of litigation in the Eastern District of New York. These aren't frivolous lawsuits. The underlying facts aren't in dispute. Lafarge literally admitted guilt in U.S. federal court three years ago.

The $777 million is already collected. It's sitting in DOJ accounts. The argument isn't about whether Lafarge did it — they said they did. The only question left is: who authorized leaving this money parked while injured veterans go under the knife again?

What Mainstream Media Is Getting Wrong

Most mainstream coverage — where it exists at all — treats this as a legal process story. "Families await resolution." "Litigation ongoing." Passive voice. No urgency.

The guilty plea happened in 2022. The money was collected. A foreign court just independently confirmed the same facts. There is no legal ambiguity remaining about what Lafarge did.

The real story is bureaucratic paralysis. Under Biden, the DOJ collected the money and did nothing. Under Trump, the DOJ has collected the money and — so far — done nothing. This is a bipartisan failure of accountability.

Fox News deserves credit for staying on this story when other outlets won't touch it. But even Fox's framing focuses on the "demand" rather than asking the harder question: which specific DOJ official is responsible for the hold-up, and what's their justification? Name that person.

Why This Matters Right Now

Lafarge paid ISIS. Lafarge admitted it. The DOJ collected $777 million. A French court just convicted the company's CEO. Nearly 1,000 military families — including a quadriplegic Navy veteran honored in a presidential address — are waiting.

There is no complicated legal question left to answer. There is no ambiguity about guilt. There is a man who cannot walk, a wife juggling his care and their son's cerebral palsy, and $777 million sitting in a government account earning nothing for the people it was meant to compensate.

If the Trump DOJ wants to prove it's different from the Biden DOJ on veterans' issues, the path is clear. The money exists. The guilty plea exists. The French conviction exists. The families exist.

What's the holdup?