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France upholds jail term for company boss

Jo HarperMay 2, 2016

A French appeals court has upheld the 4-year prison sentence handed down in 2013 to the founder of a defective breast implant firm. Hundreds of thousands of women received the faulty implants in Europe and South America.

https://p.dw.com/p/1IgX1
Jean-Claude Mas
Image: picture-alliance/dpa

The court in the southern city of Aix-en-Provence upheld Monday the fraud conviction against Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) founder Jean-Claude Mas.

A court in Marseille found the 76-year old guilty of aggravated fraud in December 2013 and sentenced him to the maximum four years in jail. The court also ordered him to pay a fine of 75,000 euros ($103,000).

PIP's sale of faulty implants caused a global health scare which affected about 300,000 women in 65 countries, with 42,000 British, 30,000 French, 25,000 Brazilian, 15,000 Colombian and 16,000 Venezuelan women receiving PIP implants. They were not sold in the United States.

The company was found to have used sub-standard silicone gel rather than medical-grade silicone. This resulted in many implants rupturing.

Throughout the trial Mas denied the silicone used was harmful. All but one of the other defendants said they had not been aware of the risks. Four other former executives received lesser sentences.

The company's head of quality control received two years, one of them suspended, and the head of research and development was sentenced to a suspended 18 month term.

With more than 5,000 women registered as plaintiffs in the case, and about 300 lawyers, the trial was one of the biggest in French legal history.

Marseilles courthouse where the 2013 trial of Jean Claude Mas was held
The Marseilles courthouse where the original trial was held in 2013Image: Reuters

Case explodes in 2011

In late 2011 Interpol issued a "red notice" seeking the arrest of Mas. The international agency said the faulty products could potentially be affecting 30,000 French women. Mas was listed as being sought in Costa Rica for offenses concerning "life and health."

PIP, which was once the world's third largest breast implant company supplying over 100,000 implants a year, was shut down and its products banned in 2010 after it was found to have been using the non-authorized silicone gel.

France's Health Products Agency (ANSM) has to date registered more than 7,500 implant ruptures and 3,000 cases of undesirable effects, mainly inflammations, among the 30,000 women using PIP products in France.

jbh/jm (AFP)

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Implant company executives go on trial in 2013

Implant company executives go on trial in 2013

Five executives have gone on trial in France over a breast implant scandal that sparked a global health scare. They're accused of selling substandard implants, filled with cheap industrial silicone and prone to rupture.
April 17, 201301:07 min
(FILE) A Venezuelan woman shows a breast implant created by French company PIP, in Caracas, Venezuela, January 6, 2012. PIP company sold industrial silicone breast implants low cost used in numerous breast enhancement operations. A year ago, on December 23, 2011, the French Health Ministry acknowledged the severity of the case and called on those affected to return to surgery to remove the implants; December 22, 2012. Photo: Carlos Hernandez/dpa/aa Keine Weitergabe an Drittverwerter.

PIP executives go on trial in France over breast implants

PIP executives go on trial in France over breast implants

Five executives of the French breast implant supplier Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) have gone on trial for fraud. They are accused of putting thousands of women at risk by using industrial silicone. (17.04.2013)
April 17, 2013