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STORY: "Business with terrorists cannot be business as usual," Monaco said.

The admission in Brooklyn federal court marked the first time a company has pleaded guilty in the United States to charges of providing material support to a terrorist organization. Lafarge, which became part of Swiss-listed Holcim HOLN.S in 2015, agreed to pay $778 million in forfeiture and fines as part of the plea agreement.

U.S. prosecutors said that Lafarge paid Islamic State and al Nusra Front, through intermediaries, the equivalent of approximately $5.92 million.

Lafarge is also facing charges of complicity in crimes against humanity in Paris for keeping a factory running in Syria after a conflict broke out in 2011.

Lafarge eventually evacuated the cement plant in September 2014, U.S. prosecutors said. At that point, Islamic State took possession of the remaining cement and sold it for the equivalent of $3.21 million, prosecutors said.