San Diego doctor Jennings Staley sentenced in hydroxychloroquine scheme

In March and April of 2020, as the coronavirus spread and folks remoted of their homes, a health care provider in San Diego boasted that he had his palms on a “miracle remedy,” according to prosecutors — hydroxychloroquine.

In mass-marketing emails from his enterprise, Skinny Seaside Med Spa, Jennings Ryan Staley said the drug was included in his coronavirus “treatment kits,” regardless of the treatment changing into increasingly scarce. However 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 assistance of a Chinese language provider, prosecutors said.

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

“On the top of the pandemic, earlier than vaccines have been available, this doctor sought to profit from sufferers’ fears,” U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman mentioned in a information release. “He abused his place of trust and undermined the integrity of your entire medical profession.”

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

How false hope unfold about hydroxychloroquine to deal with covid-19 — and the results that adopted

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, starting in the early days of the pandemic, as a “game changer.” Trump’s endorsement precipitated demand for the drug to spike, leading to shortages and in the end affecting those that needed it for non-covid well being issues. Research later discovered that hydroxychloroquine is just not an efficient therapy for covid and didn't forestall individuals from turning into sick.

In accordance with prosecutors, federal brokers started looking into Staley after concerned clients alerted the FBI to the marketing emails from Skinny Seaside Med Spa. The enterprise advertised “world-class beauty improvements at inexpensive costs,” court paperwork present, and supplied services together with Botox, fats switch, hair removal and tattoo elimination.

The covid remedy equipment got here with a 30-day “concierge medical experience,” intravenous drips, access to medical hyperbaric oxygen (at an additional payment), and prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and anti-anxiety drugs, records present.

In late March 2020, an spy responded to one of the emails and inquired concerning the treatment equipment, investigators stated. When Staley and the agent spoke on the telephone quickly after, the doctor falsely claimed that hydroxychloroquine was a “magic bullet” and an “wonderful remedy” that may hold someone immune from covid for not less than six weeks, in response to courtroom records.

“It’s preventive and healing,” Staley stated to the undercover agent, court documents show. “It’s arduous to imagine, it’s almost too good to be true. Nevertheless it’s a exceptional clinical phenomenon.”

He added that the virus “actually disappears in hours” after a person takes the drug.

When asked by the agent whether or not the medication was a “assured” cure for covid, Staley stated yes however certified that “there’s all the time exceptions” and “there are not any guarantees in life,” court records present.

During the name, Staley additionally informed the agent how he was sourcing the hydroxychloroquine. He said that he “bought 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 sufficient to make 8,000 doses in gelatin capsules.

Staley later supplied the agent prescriptions for generic versions of Viagra and Xanax, a federally controlled substance, despite by no means asking him “any medical questions,” prosecutors mentioned. The agent ordered six kits — enough for himself and five members of the family — for $4,000, in response to court documents.

A Florida man obtained millions in coronavirus assist. He used it to buy 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 among his staff to fill a prescription for hydroxychloroquine to then use it in his kits, prosecutors mentioned. And he agreed to accusations that he lied to federal agents in the course of the investigation.

“Dr. Staley supplied a ‘magic bullet’ — a guaranteed cure for COVID-19 to folks gripped in worry during a worldwide pandemic,” FBI Particular Agent in Charge Suzanne Turner mentioned in a information launch when Staley pleaded responsible. “Right this moment, Dr. Staley admitted it was all a lie as part of a scam to make a quick buck.”

As part of his sentencing on Friday, Staley was ordered to pay a $10,000 fantastic and to present again the $4,000 the federal agent paid for his family’s equipment. He additionally had to hand over “more than 4,500 tablets of varied pharmaceutical medicine, multiple luggage of empty capsule capsules, and a handbook capsule-filling machine,” prosecutors mentioned.

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