( CNN ) -- The founder of a French company that made controversial breast implants has gone on trial , accused of fraud and causing involuntary injury . Proceedings against Jean Claude Mas , who founded Poly Implant Prothese , or PIP , and four others connected to the company continued Thursday , a day after the trial opened in Marseille . A woman claimant in the case told CNN affiliate BFM-TV that she hoped to be able to speak during the trial `` to make him ( Mas ) understand all he 's made us suffer , everything we 've felt in the past three years because of him . '' Mas has consistently denied any wrongdoing , insisting that his products were perfectly safe . He was arrested in January of last year in connection with an investigation after the 2010 cancer death of a French woman with PIP implants . An estimated 300,000 women in 65 countries received breast implants from the company . The implants were banned in 2010 , and the company went bankrupt later that year . The implants are not approved for use in the United States . The French government said last year that it would pay for the removal of PIP implants for women in France . A British Department of Health study published last June found that the PIP implants do not cause cancer and are n't toxic , but that they do have a high rupture rate . The implants are `` clearly substandard , '' and are `` significantly more likely to rupture or leak silicone than other implants , '' the report found . READ MORE : Breast implant scandal : What went wrong ? CNN 's Atika Shubert contributed to this report .
Jean Claude Mas and four others are on trial in France over controversial breast implants . The French government has said it will appeal the verdict to France's highest court. PIP implants were banned in 2010 , and the company went bankrupt later that year . Mas has consistently denied any wrongdoing and says his products were safe .