The founder of a French breast implant company has been sentenced to four years in prison by a Marseille criminal court on Tuesday for hiding the true nature of the sub-standard silicone used in the implants.
The sentence of 74-year-old Jean-Claude Mas, founder and Chief Executive of Poly Implant Prothese (PIP), capped a scandal that fuelled worldwide panic in 2011 after France recommended that women with implants manufactured by PIP must have them removed due to an abnormally high rupture rate.
Once the third-largest global supplier of breast implants, the company was shutdown in 2010 and its implants ordered off markets after inspectors pursuing a tip-off discovered vats of industrial-grade silicone outside the PIP factory in southern France.
Mas, who had been pursued for aggravated fraud, was also ordered to pay a €75,000 fine.
His lawyer, Yves Haddad, said he would appeal.
Four other executives, including the chief financial officer of the company were also sentenced to between one and a half and three years in prison, some of it suspended, and fined.
"It's a strong signal. This decision is what victims were waiting for," said one of their lawyers, Philippe Courtois.
Mas had admitted using silicone that was never approved by regulators but insisted that the gel used since the founding of the company in 1991 was non-toxic.
The two-month trial in April and May was held in an exhibition centre to accommodate the 7,400 civil plaintiffs and 300 lawyers.
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