French executives on trial over faulty breast implants

MARSEILLE, France – France launched one of its biggest-ever trials on Wednesday, April 17, as five managers from company PIP faced charges of selling faulty breast implants that sparked a global health scare.

More than 5,000 women registered as plaintiffs in the case which sees the defendants, including PIP founder Jean-Claude Mas, charged with aggravated fraud for using industrial-grade silicone in implants.

An estimated 300,000 women in 65 countries are believed to have received the implants, which some health authorities say are twice as likely to rupture as other brands.

Up to 400 of the plaintiffs were on hand Wednesday for the start of the trial, which has been moved to a congress centre in the southern city of Marseille to accommodate the hundreds of plaintiffs and lawyers attending.

The defendants face up to five years in prison and the trial is set to last until May 17.

Taking to the stand to declare his name and profession at the start of the trial, Mas was booed by the crowd, who hissed and shouted again when a defence lawyer stated that the accused had been “ruined” by the scandal.

Mas, who has always insisted there was no health risk from the implants, made no comment to journalists gathered outside the courtroom, but his lawyer Yves Haddad said he would expound on his actions in court.

“Mr. Mas and the other defendants will explain themselves,” Haddad said.

“What we expect is that … the defendants receive the punishment they deserve, even if we know in advance that it will not be commensurate with what they did,” said Alexandra Blachere, the head of the PPP association representing women who were given the implants.

She said the women were victims who were too often “stigmatized” for wanting the implants in the first place and deserved financial compensation.

News of the faulty implants in 2011 sparked fears worldwide, but health officials in various countries have said they are not toxic and do not increase the risk of breast cancer.

More than 4,000 women have reported ruptures, and in France alone 15,000 have had the PIP implants replaced.

Mas, a former traveling 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.

He built the company into the third-largest global supplier but 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 allegedly using industrial-grade gel in 75 percent of the implants. PIP’s implants were banned and the company eventually liquidated.

PIP exported more than 80 percent of its implants, with about half going to Latin America, about a third to other countries in western Europe, some 10 percent to eastern Europe and the rest to the Middle East and Asia.

The others on trial with Mas are PIP’s former general manager, Claude Couty, quality control director Hannelore Font, technical director Loic Gossart and product director Thierry Brinon.

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 2010 death from cancer of a woman who was fitted with the implants.

The case began Wednesday with a number of defense requests for it to be thrown out, including one on the basis that the trial is going ahead before the other probes into more serious charges have concluded.

Some lawyers for the plaintiffs are also expected to request the case be expanded to include others they claim should be held responsible, such as plastic surgeons, public health authorities and a German safety standards firm that gave the implants the go-ahead.

The hearings were adjourned until Thursday morning, April 18, with the court expected to continuing hearing procedural motions until at least Friday, April 19. – Rappler.com