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A FRENCH COURT has convicted of fraud the ex-managers of a firm whose faulty breast implants sparked a global health scare, and sentenced the company’s founder to four years in jail.
The now-defunct firm, Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) was at the centre of worldwide concern two years ago after it was revealed to have used cheaper industrial-grade silicone in thousands of breast implants sold worldwide.
The court sentenced PIP founder Jean-Claude Mas to four years in prison, fined him €75,000 and banned him permanently from working in medical services or running a company.
‘Sorcerer’s apprentice’
Mas, a 74-year-old dubbed “the sorcerer’s apprentice of implants” by prosecutors, did not react as the verdict was read out in court.
“I am disappointed but not surprised,” Mas’s lawyer Yves Haddad said, blaming the verdict on “strong pressure” due to the public nature of the scandal and announcing plans to appeal.
Haddad said it was “shocking” that Mas had not been given a suspended sentence as he had no previous criminal record.
Four other former PIP executives were also convicted by the court in Marseille on the charges of aggravated fraud and given lesser sentences.
The scandal first emerged in 2010 after doctors noticed abnormally high rupture rates in PIP implants.
Some 300,000 women in 65 countries are 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.
More than 7,000 women had declared themselves civil plaintiffs in the case and several dozen were in court 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.
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.
Mas founded PIP in 1991 to take advantage of the booming market for cosmetic implants.
Health authorities later discovered he was saving millions of euro by using industrial-grade gel in 75 percent of the implants. 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.
Suspicious death
The manslaughter probe is related to the suspicious 2010 death from cancer of a woman who was fitted with the implants.
German safety standards firm TUV, which approved the implants for market, was last month found liable in the case.
A European Commission report found in October that the defective breast implants contain no potentially toxic compounds.
Approximately 1,500 Irish women were fitted with the defective implants, with 138 ruptures being reported in Ireland by May of this year.
It was announced in early May that the cost of removing the PIP implants from Irish women would be covered by the three clinics which used the faulty products.
- Additional reporting AFP. - © AFP, 2013
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Why were those houses ever built on what is clearly a flood plain?
@eoin fitzpatrick: You took the words from my mouth. The location of these houses is complete madness.
@eoin fitzpatrick: Brown bag. It is as simple as that. Greed and corruption are good in this country.
@eoin fitzpatrick: my first thought exactly, it’s only when you see an aerial shot like that you can clearly see nothing should ever have been built there
@eoin fitzpatrick: class action law suit incoming from those residents against planning authority.
@Shimo F: Against themselves maybe. They could clearly find out. Anyone buying a house that close to a river and at the same level of a river isn’t the brightest.
@eoin fitzpatrick: I think fg have promised to put a roof over the entire country if re-elected
This is terrible news for all involved but is anybody asking “Stanley: New Homes”, who recently built The Meadows estate in question, why they built homes surrounded by The River Feale on 3 sides and didn’t disclose to residents that this land has always been a natural flood plain for the river? How often has it flooded like this in the past? Who approved the planning permission in the local authority? Was there a natura impact statement carried out as part of the planning process?
Housing crisis compounded by stupidity – yet again!
@Kieran Farrell: jesus, that’s shocking….when you say ‘recently built’…. like in the last decade??
@Kieran Farrell: Planning granted by the Local Authority for that was a flood plain, simple solution is to sue the Local Authority. This Local Authority don’t give local people planning permission on their own land with top notch sewage systems, yet they give a Developer planning for multiple Houses on a flood plain, same old ding dong in Ireland, it’s who you know & who you give your brown envelope to. The next Govt of FF & SF will bring this to another level again. Ireland is a failed State.
@Kieran Farrell: CORRECTION – The Meadows was built in 2006, and ‘Stanley: New Homes’ were not involved.
@Kieran Farrell: Fair enough! Thanks fir clarification
@SV3tN8M4: Virtually impossible to sue the local authority.
@Kieran Farrell: the flooding was described today as a once in 100 year event. The height of the river was measured at 4m on Saturday afternoon – the next highest ever recorded was 3.5m in 1973. I’m not sure that bad planning decisions is the cause this weekends flooding
@Kieran Farrell: If you are dumb enough to buy a house on a flood plain, it’s on you.
Terrible, obviously condolences to everyone effected. Does the aerial view tell a story? Like why are so many housing estates within 100 yards of an oxbowing river? Seems mad, but I know little of geography or surveying land for development.
@Thesaltyurchin: ask the Healy Rae’s
@Temp Stuff: Healy rea’s aren’t from Listowel
I feel so sorry for those people.
Nothing worse than flooding and just before Xmas.
@Stanley Marsh: Christmas
The FG fella was straight out with the standard party line ‘ lessons will be learned’
But we have to help the rest of the world,that’s the most concerning thing for the politicians of Ireland. Never mind our own, especially the people of Listowel, Killybegs and the rest of the country affected by the detrimental weather. Shur here’s an idea, let’s just worry and support every swinging dog across the work’s who needs our generosity. Let’s give them money, refuge, support while our own have homes & businesses destroyed. Shur never mind, it’s only our country at the end of the day.
@Brian Barry: *Works =World.. Just in case ye lefty punctuation police come knocking!!
@Brian Barry: Eamon is on his way back from the annual jolly, COP where he signed us up as a donor for a 300Billion ( per annum) dollar windfall ….. You couldn’t make it up in a Hollywood comedy
Cost us 200million to build flood defences in 2 years time. Lot of money for incompetence in Kerry coco
Boom time building with ‘no holds barred’ planning permissions given to those who knew who to give the brown envelope to
A photo of houses built on a flood plain. Interesting planning.
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