Google – AFP, Anne Beade (AFP), 10 December 2013
 |
Poly
Implant Prothese (PIP) founder Jean-Claude Mas leaves the courthouse
in
marseille, on December 10, 2013 (AFP, Bertrand Langlois)
|
Marseille —
The founder of a French firm whose faulty breast implants sparked a global
health scare was sentenced to four years in jail Tuesday after being convicted
of fraud.
Four other
former executives of the now-defunct Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) were also
convicted over a scandal that reverberated around the world.
PIP was
revealed two years ago to have been systematically using industrial-grade
rather than medically approved silicone in its breast implants in order to cut
costs and boost profits.
 |
A file
picture, taken on January 3, 2012
in Marseille, southeastern France, shows
a
breast implant produced by Poly Implant
Prothese company (PIP), with its PIP
identity
card (AFP/File, Anne-Christine Poujoulat)
|
The
Marseille court sentenced PIP founder Jean-Claude Mas to four years in prison,
fined him 75,000 euros ($103,000) and banned him permanently from working in
medical services or running a company.
The
74-year-old, who says he is insolvent, was also ordered to compensate more than
4,000 plaintiffs up to 13,000 euros each for the anxiety he had caused them
and, in some cases, the physical trauma of having the implants removed.
Mas, who
was dubbed "the sorcerer's apprentice of implants" by prosecutors,
did not react as the verdict was read out in court.
"Jean-Claude
Mas did not fear for about 10 years to sell breast implants which contained a
gel... made using uncertain procedures," the court said, adding that they
had not been subjected to "obligatory tests and examinations".
His lawyer,
Yves Haddad, blamed the severity of the sentence on media-generated pressure
and said he would appeal, a move which will keep Mas out of prison pending the
outcome of a further hearing.
Haddad said
it was "shocking" that Mas had not been given a suspended sentence as
he had no previous criminal record.
The scandal
first emerged in 2010 after doctors noticed abnormally high rupture rates in
PIP implants.
It gathered
steam worldwide in 2011, with some 300,000 women in 65 countries believed to
have received the faulty implants.
During a
month-long trial in April, the defendants admitted to using the industrial
silicone but Mas denied the company's implants posed any health risks.
More than
7,500 women have reported ruptures in the implants and in France alone 15,000
have had the PIP implants replaced.
 |
Map showing
the number of known PIP implants by country (AFP)
|
But health
officials in various countries have said they are not toxic and do not increase
the risk of breast cancer.
Several dozen
of the women who had brought civil actions against Mas and PIP were in court
Tuesday for the verdict.
"It is
an important symbolic first step -- the first time that we can use the word
'guilty' for Jean-Claude Mas," said Alexandra Blachere, the head of an
association of women given the implants.
"It is
a relief for the victims to be recognised," said Philippe Courtois, a
lawyer for many of them, hailing the court's "rapid and coherent
response".
Industrial
gel saved PIP millions
The court
also sentenced PIP's former general manager Claude Couty to three years in
prison, with two years suspended.
Quality
control director Hannelore Font and production director Loic Gossart were both
sentenced to two years in prison, with one suspended, and research director
Thierry Brinon was given an 18-month suspended sentence.
The
executives are also partly liable for the damages award made Tuesday, although
it was unclear if any of them would be capable of paying.
The court
said Mas ran a tight ship and that "it was particularly difficult to go
against his decisions and orders". It added that he was the "main
beneficiary" of the money obtained through fraud.
Mas, a
one-time travelling salesman who got his start in the medical business by
selling pharmaceuticals, founded PIP in 1991 to take advantage of the booming
market for cosmetic implants.
 |
Catherine
Bolognesi, one of the plaintiffs,
answers journalists' questions as she
leaves
the courthouse following the trial of
five Poly Implant Prostheses (PIP)
executives
in Marseille, southern France, on December 10,
2013 (AFP, Bertrand
Langlois)
|
He built
the company into the third-largest global supplier of implants. He came under
the spotlight when plastic surgeons began reporting an unusual number of
ruptures in his products.
Health
authorities later discovered he was saving millions of euros by using
industrial-grade gel in 75 percent of the implants.
Implants
must be made from medical grade material that has been approved for use in a
human body.
PIP's
implants were banned and the company eventually liquidated.
PIP had
exported more than 80 percent of its implants, with about half going to Latin
America, about a third to other countries in western Europe, about 10 percent
to eastern Europe and the rest to the Middle East and Asia.
Some of the
defendants, including Mas, have also been charged in separate and ongoing
manslaughter and financial fraud investigations into the scandal.
The
manslaughter probe is related to the suspicious 2010 death from cancer of a
woman who was fitted with the implants.
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