San Diego doctor Jennings Staley sentenced in hydroxychloroquine scheme

In March and April of 2020, because the coronavirus spread and folks isolated in their homes, a physician in San Diego boasted that he had his hands on a “miracle remedy,” in response to prosecutors — hydroxychloroquine.

In mass-marketing emails from his business, Skinny Seaside Med Spa, Jennings Ryan Staley said the drug was included in his coronavirus “treatment kits,” regardless of the medicine changing into increasingly scarce. But Staley had a means of getting it, he later told an undercover federal agent. He deliberate to smuggle in a barrel of hydroxychloroquine powder with the help of a Chinese provider, prosecutors said.

Staley was sentenced last week to 30 days in prison and a yr of house confinement for the scheme. He pleaded responsible last yr.

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

Staley’s legal professional did not instantly reply to requests for remark late Monday.

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

Hydroxychloroquine is commonly prescribed to individuals 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 “sport changer.” Trump’s endorsement precipitated demand for the drug to spike, resulting in shortages and finally affecting those who needed it for non-covid well being issues. Studies later discovered that hydroxychloroquine will not be an efficient therapy for covid and didn't forestall individuals from becoming sick.

In line with prosecutors, federal brokers began looking into Staley after concerned customers alerted the FBI to the advertising emails from Skinny Seaside Med Spa. The business advertised “world-class beauty innovations at affordable costs,” court paperwork present, and offered companies together with Botox, fats transfer, hair elimination and tattoo removing.

The covid treatment equipment came with a 30-day “concierge medical expertise,” intravenous drips, access to medical hyperbaric oxygen (at an extra fee), and prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and anti-anxiety drugs, records present.

In late March 2020, an spy responded to one of many emails and inquired about the treatment package, investigators mentioned. 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 will preserve someone immune from covid for at the very least six weeks, based on courtroom records.

“It’s preventive and curative,” Staley said to the secret agent, courtroom documents show. “It’s laborious to consider, it’s nearly too good to be true. However it’s a exceptional clinical phenomenon.”

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

When asked by the agent whether the remedy was a “guaranteed” treatment for covid, Staley said yes however certified that “there’s at all times exceptions” and “there are not any ensures in life,” court data show.

During the name, Staley also informed the agent how he was sourcing the hydroxychloroquine. He mentioned that he “obtained the final tank of hydroxychloroquine smuggled out of China,” data show, and that he “tricked customs” by labeling the barrel as “candy 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 versions of Viagra and Xanax, a federally controlled substance, regardless of never asking him “any medical questions,” prosecutors said. The agent ordered six kits — sufficient for himself and 5 relations — for $4,000, in line with court docket paperwork.

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

Staley was charged in mid-April 2020 and pleaded guilty in July 2021. As part of his plea agreement, Staley also admitted to posing as one in every of his employees 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 agents during the investigation.

“Dr. Staley supplied a ‘magic bullet’ — a assured remedy for COVID-19 to people gripped in worry throughout a worldwide pandemic,” FBI Particular Agent in Charge Suzanne Turner stated in a news launch when Staley pleaded guilty. “At this time, Dr. Staley admitted it was all a lie as part of a scam to make a quick buck.”

As a part of his sentencing on Friday, Staley was ordered to pay a $10,000 nice and to give again the $4,000 the federal agent paid for his household’s equipment. He also needed to hand over “greater than 4,500 tablets of assorted pharmaceutical medicine, multiple bags of empty capsule capsules, and a guide capsule-filling machine,” prosecutors mentioned.

According to information from the medical board of California, Staley’s license has been quickly suspended by a court order.