Total S.A. subsidiary Grande Paroisse and Serge Biechlin, manager of a Grande Paroisse-owned fertilizer plant in Toulouse, France were convicted of manslaughter in connection with a September 2001 explosion at the plant that killed 31 people, injured several thousand others, and damaged thousands of homes. The court found Biechlin and Grande Paroisse guilty of involuntarily causing death through carelessness, inattentiveness, negligence, breach of security obligations, or outright error. Biechlin was sentenced to three years in prison (two of which were suspended) and fined 45,000 euros (approx. $60,000) Grande Paroisse was fined 225,000 euros (approx. $295,000). Grande Paroisse also reportedly paid more than $2 billion to over 16,000 victims of the explosion. A 2006 French judicial investigation found that Grande Paroisse caused the explosion by negligently allowing a large quantity of ammonium nitrate to come in contact with other chemicals.