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Full Article Best photos of the year Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read Gingrich questions Ron Paul on racist newsletters 23 Dec 2011 French breast implant boss wanted by Interpol 23 Dec 2011 NORAD's Santa tracking set to launch on Christmas Eve 23 Dec 2011 Gingrich out of Virginia primary election 10:58am EST Tens of thousands of protesters pile pressure on Putin | 10:56am EST Discussed 280 In ad for newsletter, Ron Paul forecast ”race war” 131 Slumping Gingrich promises sharper counter-punch 114 North Korea state TV says Kim Jong il has died Watched Heart scare for Britain's Prince Philip Fri, Dec 23 2011 Homelessness rising in UK 5:41am EST New ISS crew welcomed Fri, Dec 23 2011 French health minister says implant boss must answer Tweet Share this Email Print Related News France, UK issue clashing advice on breast implants Fri, Dec 23 2011 Brazil tells suspect implant users to seek check-up Fri, Dec 23 2011 French breast implant boss wanted by Interpol Fri, Dec 23 2011 Germany urges women to check suspect breast implants Fri, Dec 23 2011 France recommends removal of suspect breast implants Fri, Dec 23 2011 Analysis & Opinion Cheeseburgers and death: de-socializing health care Related Topics World » France » Plastic surgeon Denis Boucq displays a defective silicone gel breast implant manufactured by French company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) after he removed it from a patient in a clinic in Nice December 21, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Eric Gaillard Sat Dec 24, 2011 10:03am EST PARIS (Reuters) - France's health minister called on Saturday for the head of the breast implant maker accused of selling faulty prostheses to tens of thousands of women around the world to be found, calling the growing scandal a "shady business." Jean-Claude Mas, 72, the founder and CEO of French company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) has not been seen or heard of in public since the scandal potentially affecting 300,000 women around the world broke. His company is accused of using sub-standard industrial silicone in some of its implants, which were sold globally before being taken off the market in 2010. "It's obvious we have to find him (Mas) and those who had an interest in this company," French Health Minister Xavier Bertrand told Europe 1 radio on Saturday. "They have to answer for their actions." "It's a shady business with lots of money involved," Bertrand said. "In not using the advertised product (silicone) they tried to make some money, that's the worst of it, on the health of women." PIP's lawyer has said Mas and the company's chief financial officer were keeping silent "out of decency and discretion" but were still in the south of France. On Saturday, international police agency Interpol confirmed that it had issued a so-called "red notice" for Mas, but said it was unrelated to his activities at PIP. Interpol said the notice was related to an affair in Costa Rica in June 2010, when police there say he was arrested for a drunk driving offence but fled the country and did not show up for a court date. Mas was briefly questioned by police in November 2010 but has never been summoned to court. A judicial source has told Reuters, however, that between four and six executives could be charged by a Marseilles criminal court for aggravated fraud. "HOME-MADE" GOO Just what that fraud was is the subject of controversy, with varying accounts of who knew what at the company in an industrial town outside the southern city of Toulon. Undated photographs that accompanied news stories in 2010 and taken by a photographer for the regional newspaper Var-Matin showed workers in blue gowns filling rows of prostheses with silicone gel. Masked and gloved, they looked as if they worked at an above-board professional health company. But French health officials discovered last year that PIP was using a home-made brew of silicone, an industrial variety not approved by health authorities. "You had to have been a chemist to have noticed anything," a former PIP worker and union chief, Eric Mariaccia, told Reuters. "The responsible ones aren't the workers but the heads of the company, notably the four who were linked to production and thus responsible for their quality," he said. At the company, which eventually shut its doors in 2010 after bankruptcy, Mas gave the orders, even though he was technically in retirement and CFO Claude Couty worked on operations, Mariaccia said. "The silicone gel was made at the factory, at PIP," he said. "It was a 'home-made' gel." But other workers painted a more menacing picture of operations at PIP. The false gel had been used since 2001, as PIP bosses were seduced by the price difference between their home-made version and the approved gel, according to an unnamed former PIP executive interviewed for an August 2, 2010 story in Var-Matin. Reuters was unable to immediately confirm the account given by the Var-Matin source. Var-Matin quoted the unidentified former PIP executive as saying that while medical silicone gel cost about $60 for 200 kg (441 pounds), PIP's industrial version cost about $10. Although nobody at the company talked about the two different kinds of silicone being used in the implants, it was obvious by sight, the ex-manager told Var-Matin. "The medical gel didn't run. By contrast, the 'fake gel' was like soapy water." PIP was able to continue its ruse because periodic checks by regulators were pre-announced and even suppliers of the industrial oil used to make the silicone were lied to, according to the former executive. "PIP said that this oil was being used to make hand soap." Some buyers of the implants, however, were in on the game, Var-Matin quoted the former executive as saying. "With exports, you'd hear, 'You want a pack of prostheses. Good ones or bad ones?' Everything depended on the relationships we had with the distributors," he said. (Writing by Alexandria Sage; Editing by) World France Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above. 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