San Diego doctor Jennings Staley sentenced in hydroxychloroquine scheme

In March and April of 2020, because the coronavirus unfold and other people remoted of their properties, a physician in San Diego boasted that he had his hands on a “miracle cure,” based on prosecutors — hydroxychloroquine.

In mass-marketing emails from his enterprise, Skinny Seashore Med Spa, Jennings Ryan Staley stated the drug was included in his coronavirus “remedy kits,” regardless of the medication changing into more and more scarce. However Staley had a approach of getting it, he later told an undercover federal agent. He planned to smuggle in a barrel of hydroxychloroquine powder with the help of a Chinese provider, prosecutors mentioned.

Staley was sentenced final week to 30 days in jail and a year of residence confinement for the scheme. He pleaded responsible last year.

“On the peak of the pandemic, before vaccines had been obtainable, this doctor sought to profit from sufferers’ fears,” U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman mentioned in a news launch. “He abused his place of belief and undermined the integrity of your complete medical career.”

Staley’s attorney did not instantly respond to requests for remark late Monday.

How false hope unfold about hydroxychloroquine to treat covid-19 — and the results that followed

Hydroxychloroquine is commonly prescribed to people with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and is used to deal with malaria. The drug was repeatedly touted by President Donald Trump, beginning in the early days of the pandemic, as a “game changer.” Trump’s endorsement triggered demand for the drug to spike, leading to shortages and in the end affecting those who needed it for non-covid health issues. Research later found that hydroxychloroquine is just not an efficient treatment for covid and did not stop folks from becoming sick.

In response to prosecutors, federal agents began looking into Staley after involved prospects alerted the FBI to the marketing emails from Skinny Seaside Med Spa. The business marketed “world-class magnificence improvements at reasonably priced costs,” court docket documents show, and supplied companies including Botox, fat switch, hair removing and tattoo removing.

The covid remedy package got here with a 30-day “concierge medical expertise,” intravenous drips, entry to medical hyperbaric oxygen (at an extra charge), and prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and anti-anxiety medicines, information present.

In late March 2020, an spy responded to one of the emails and inquired concerning the therapy equipment, investigators stated. When Staley and the agent spoke on the cellphone quickly after, the physician falsely claimed that hydroxychloroquine was a “magic bullet” and an “amazing treatment” that might preserve someone immune from covid for at the very least six weeks, in response to court docket records.

“It’s preventive and healing,” Staley stated to the undercover agent, court docket documents show. “It’s arduous to consider, it’s almost too good to be true. However it’s a outstanding scientific phenomenon.”

He added that the virus “literally disappears in hours” after an individual takes the drug.

When asked by the agent whether or not the treatment was a “assured” remedy for covid, Staley said sure but qualified that “there’s all the time exceptions” and “there are not any ensures in life,” court information show.

Throughout the call, Staley additionally instructed the agent how he was sourcing the hydroxychloroquine. He mentioned that he “got the final tank of hydroxychloroquine smuggled out of China,” data present, and that he “tricked customs” by labeling the barrel as “candy potato extract.” He added that the powder was sufficient to make 8,000 doses in gelatin capsules.

Staley later offered the agent prescriptions for generic variations of Viagra and Xanax, a federally managed substance, despite never asking him “any medical questions,” prosecutors said. The agent ordered six kits — sufficient for himself and five family members — for $4,000, in accordance with court docket documents.

A Florida man received millions in coronavirus assist. He used it to purchase a Lamborghini, prosecutors say.

Staley was charged in mid-April 2020 and pleaded responsible in July 2021. As a part of his plea agreement, Staley also admitted to posing as one in every of his workers to fill a prescription for hydroxychloroquine to then use it in his kits, prosecutors said. And he agreed to accusations that he lied to federal agents during the investigation.

“Dr. Staley supplied a ‘magic bullet’ — a guaranteed remedy for COVID-19 to people gripped in worry throughout a global pandemic,” FBI Special Agent in Cost Suzanne Turner stated in a information release when Staley pleaded responsible. “As we speak, Dr. Staley admitted it was all a lie as a part of a scam to make a fast buck.”

As part of his sentencing on Friday, Staley was ordered to pay a $10,000 high-quality and to present back the $4,000 the federal agent paid for his household’s package. He additionally had to hand over “greater than 4,500 tablets of various pharmaceutical drugs, a number of baggage of empty tablet capsules, and a guide capsule-filling machine,” prosecutors mentioned.

In response to information from the medical board of California, Staley’s license has been temporarily suspended by a court docket order.