French implants chief ‘bankrupt’ and unable to pay compensation

Jean-Claude Mas, 72, has claimed he is living on €1,650 (£1,365) a month and has just €500 in his bank account.

He has insisted his company – once one of the world’s biggest prosthetics suppliers – has no assets which could be liquidated.

In police statements seen by French daily newspaper Le Figaro, Mr Mas said: “I am just about surviving. I’m not a rich man. I live on a pension of €1,650 a month and have about €500 in the bank. That’s it.

“I had a little company and some workers, and now I have nothing.”

However, detectives are investigating claims that Mr Mas may have hidden millions of euros in assets, including two properties both worth more than €1 million in the south of France and Luxembourg.

But the newspaper added: “So far no assets have been found in his name, and this will make it very difficult for any woman seeking compensation to make a claim against him.”

Mr Mas also sparked outrage after he branded women taking legal action against him as “moneygrabbers”.

He described patients who fear their implants could rupture and leak contaminated silicone gel into their bodies as “psychologically fragile”.

He admitted he used illegally obtained low-cost gel which was never tested on humans to manufacture the implants, but he insisted they posed no threat to women’s health.

And he said he had “nothing to say” to the thousands of women who may need to have their implants removed.

He said: “These are just people who are psychologically fragile or are doing it for the money.

“The formula was perfect. In fact, it was better than that used in standard implants. But it’s true that since 1997 we had been hiding which products we used to make our PIP gel.

“I did not have the right to buy these products because they were not industry standard, so everything was done to avoid official checks.”

His remarks – made to police in October 2010 – exposed “the shocking greed and cynicism” of the former owner of France’s PIP company, a lawyer for the breast implant victims’ association said.

It has since emerged that his implants contained the chemicals Baysilone, Silopren and Rhodorsil – normally used as fuel additives or in the manufacture of industrial rubber tubing,

The full scale of the PIP implant scandal only surfaced last month when France urged 30,000 women to have their implants removed after a spate of ruptures.

Mr Mas is now in hiding and currently wanted in two separate French police investigations for manslaughter and fraud.

Le Parisien newspaper said: “No-one knows where he is, but sources tell us that it is unlikely he is still in France.”

Yesterday, the Harley Medical Group, which fitted PIP breast implants to almost 14,000 British women, said it would not replace them free of charge.

The private firm fitted more of the implants than any other UK cosmetic surgery firm.

The company’s chairman, Mel Braham, said the firm had neither the resources, the surgeons, nor the operating facilities needed to do the surgery.