Founder of breast implant firm arrested in France

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REPORTING FROM PARIS -- The founder of a breast implant firm at the center of an international health scare was arrested Thursday in an early-morning police raid on his luxury home in the south of France.

Officers searched the property of Jean-Claude Mas, the head of Poly Implant Prothese, at 7 a.m. and took the 72-year-old into custody.

Mas is believed to have been detained as part of investigations that began last month into allegations of manslaughter and involuntary injury after it was found that his company produced breast implants using substandard, industrial-grade silicone. Poly Implant Prothese, or PIP, closed in 2010 after regulators raised the alarm.

Last month, the French government advised 30,000 women to have substandard PIP implants removed following health officials’ warnings that the implants had a higher risk of rupturing and leaking silicone.

Mas has admitted using ‘homemade’ silicone in the implants to cut costs. The gel was not approved for medical use and included a mix of agricultural- and industrial-grade silicone. Asked about the ingredients used, Mas told French radio: ‘A chemical product can be used to make lots of things.’

He had previously told investigators that he had instructed company staff to hide the gel from inspectors.

PIP was once one of the world’s largest producers of silicone implants, known for their ‘good value’ and reasonable price. The company produced more than 100,000 implants a year, exporting 80% of them to 65 countries.

A second PIP executive, former chief financial officer Claude Couty, was also arrested Thursday.

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