San Diego doctor Jennings Staley sentenced in hydroxychloroquine scheme

In March and April of 2020, because the coronavirus spread and other people remoted in their homes, a doctor in San Diego boasted that he had his palms on a “miracle remedy,” based on prosecutors — hydroxychloroquine.

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

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

“On the top of the pandemic, earlier than vaccines were obtainable, this physician 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 the complete medical profession.”

Staley’s lawyer didn't immediately reply to requests for comment late Monday.

How false hope spread about hydroxychloroquine to treat covid-19 — and the implications that adopted

Hydroxychloroquine is often prescribed to individuals with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and is used to treat 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 brought on demand for the drug to spike, leading to shortages and in the end affecting those who wanted it for non-covid well being problems. Studies later found that hydroxychloroquine will not be an efficient remedy for covid and didn't prevent individuals from becoming sick.

In accordance with prosecutors, federal brokers began wanting into Staley after concerned customers alerted the FBI to the marketing emails from Skinny Seaside Med Spa. The business marketed “world-class beauty innovations at inexpensive prices,” court docket paperwork show, and supplied services together with Botox, fat switch, hair elimination and tattoo removing.

The covid remedy kit got here with a 30-day “concierge medical experience,” intravenous drips, entry to medical hyperbaric oxygen (at an extra charge), and prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and anti-anxiety medications, records show.

In late March 2020, an spy responded to one of the emails and inquired concerning the treatment package, investigators mentioned. When Staley and the agent spoke on the phone quickly after, the physician falsely claimed that hydroxychloroquine was a “magic bullet” and an “amazing remedy” that will hold someone immune from covid for a minimum of six weeks, in keeping with courtroom information.

“It’s preventive and healing,” Staley stated to the undercover agent, court documents present. “It’s hard to imagine, it’s nearly too good to be true. Nevertheless it’s a remarkable scientific phenomenon.”

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

When requested by the agent whether the medication was a “guaranteed” treatment for covid, Staley mentioned sure but qualified that “there’s at all times exceptions” and “there aren't any guarantees in life,” courtroom records present.

In the course of the call, Staley additionally told the agent how he was sourcing the hydroxychloroquine. He mentioned that he “received the last 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, regardless of by no means asking him “any medical questions,” prosecutors stated. The agent ordered six kits — sufficient for himself and five relations — for $4,000, based on courtroom paperwork.

A Florida man obtained hundreds of 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 considered one of his workers 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 throughout the investigation.

“Dr. Staley provided a ‘magic bullet’ — a guaranteed remedy for COVID-19 to individuals gripped in fear throughout a worldwide pandemic,” FBI Particular Agent in Cost Suzanne Turner mentioned in a news release when Staley pleaded guilty. “Right now, Dr. Staley admitted it was all a lie as a part of a rip-off to make a quick buck.”

As part of his sentencing on Friday, Staley was ordered to pay a $10,000 high-quality and to provide back the $4,000 the federal agent paid for his family’s kit. He also had to hand over “greater than 4,500 tablets of varied pharmaceutical medicine, multiple baggage of empty tablet capsules, and a manual capsule-filling machine,” prosecutors stated.

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