San Diego physician Jennings Staley sentenced in hydroxychloroquine scheme

In March and April of 2020, as the coronavirus unfold and other people remoted of their houses, a health care provider in San Diego boasted that he had his arms on a “miracle cure,” in response to prosecutors — hydroxychloroquine.

In mass-marketing emails from his enterprise, Skinny Seaside Med Spa, Jennings Ryan Staley stated the drug was included in his coronavirus “treatment kits,” regardless of the remedy changing into more and more scarce. But Staley had a means of getting it, he later instructed an undercover federal agent. He planned to smuggle in a barrel of hydroxychloroquine powder with the help of a Chinese language supplier, prosecutors stated.

Staley was sentenced final week to 30 days in prison and a yr of house confinement for the scheme. He pleaded guilty final 12 months.

“On the top of the pandemic, before vaccines were obtainable, this doctor sought to profit from patients’ fears,” U.S. Lawyer Randy Grossman said in a information release. “He abused his position of trust and undermined the integrity of the complete medical career.”

Staley’s legal professional did not immediately reply to requests for comment late Monday.

How false hope spread about hydroxychloroquine to deal with covid-19 — and the consequences that followed

Hydroxychloroquine is often prescribed to folks with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and is used to deal with malaria. The drug was repeatedly touted by President Donald Trump, starting within the early days of the pandemic, as a “recreation changer.” Trump’s endorsement triggered demand for the drug to spike, leading to shortages and finally affecting those who wanted it for non-covid health problems. Research later discovered that hydroxychloroquine is just not an effective therapy for covid and didn't prevent individuals from becoming sick.

According to prosecutors, federal agents started wanting into Staley after involved clients alerted the FBI to the advertising and marketing emails from Skinny Seashore Med Spa. The business marketed “world-class magnificence innovations at inexpensive prices,” courtroom paperwork present, and offered providers including Botox, fat switch, hair removing and tattoo removing.

The covid treatment equipment came with a 30-day “concierge medical expertise,” intravenous drips, entry to medical hyperbaric oxygen (at an additional charge), and prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and anti-anxiety medications, information show.

In late March 2020, an secret agent responded to one of many emails and inquired concerning the remedy kit, investigators mentioned. When Staley and the agent spoke on the phone soon after, the doctor falsely claimed that hydroxychloroquine was a “magic bullet” and an “superb cure” that may maintain somebody immune from covid for at the least six weeks, based on court information.

“It’s preventive and healing,” Staley stated to the undercover agent, court docket documents present. “It’s arduous to consider, it’s nearly too good to be true. Nevertheless it’s a exceptional medical phenomenon.”

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

When requested by the agent whether the treatment was a “assured” remedy for covid, Staley said yes but qualified that “there’s at all times exceptions” and “there are not any guarantees in life,” court docket records show.

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

Staley later provided the agent prescriptions for generic variations of Viagra and Xanax, a federally controlled substance, regardless of by no means asking him “any medical questions,” prosecutors said. The agent ordered six kits — enough for himself and 5 family members — for $4,000, in line with court documents.

A Florida man acquired thousands and thousands in coronavirus support. He used it to buy a Lamborghini, prosecutors say.

Staley was charged in mid-April 2020 and pleaded responsible in July 2021. As part of his plea settlement, Staley additionally admitted to posing as one in every of his staff to fill a prescription for hydroxychloroquine to then use it in his kits, prosecutors stated. And he agreed to accusations that he lied to federal brokers through the investigation.

“Dr. Staley offered a ‘magic bullet’ — a assured remedy for COVID-19 to folks gripped in concern during a world pandemic,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Suzanne Turner said in a news launch when Staley pleaded responsible. “At this time, Dr. Staley admitted it was all a lie as a part of a scam to make a fast buck.”

As a part of his sentencing on Friday, Staley was ordered to pay a $10,000 advantageous and to offer back the $4,000 the federal agent paid for his household’s equipment. He additionally had to hand over “greater than 4,500 tablets of various pharmaceutical medication, a number of bags of empty capsule capsules, and a manual capsule-filling machine,” prosecutors said.

In line with data from the medical board of California, Staley’s license has been quickly suspended by a courtroom order.