San Diego doctor Jennings Staley sentenced in hydroxychloroquine scheme

In March and April of 2020, because the coronavirus spread and folks isolated in their properties, a doctor in San Diego boasted that he had his palms on a “miracle cure,” based on prosecutors — hydroxychloroquine.

In mass-marketing emails from his business, Skinny Seashore Med Spa, Jennings Ryan Staley said the drug was included in his coronavirus “treatment kits,” despite the medicine turning into increasingly scarce. However Staley had a method 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 supplier, prosecutors mentioned.

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

“At the peak of the pandemic, earlier than vaccines were out there, this physician sought to profit from patients’ fears,” U.S. Lawyer Randy Grossman stated in a information release. “He abused his place of belief and undermined the integrity of the whole medical occupation.”

Staley’s attorney did not immediately reply to requests for remark late Monday.

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

Hydroxychloroquine is often prescribed to people 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 “game 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 problems. Research later discovered that hydroxychloroquine is not an efficient treatment for covid and didn't prevent individuals from changing into sick.

Based on prosecutors, federal agents started looking into Staley after concerned customers alerted the FBI to the advertising emails from Skinny Seashore Med Spa. The enterprise advertised “world-class beauty innovations at inexpensive prices,” court docket documents show, and provided services including Botox, fat switch, hair removal and tattoo removing.

The covid remedy equipment came with a 30-day “concierge medical expertise,” intravenous drips, entry to medical hyperbaric oxygen (at an extra payment), and prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and anti-anxiety medicines, data present.

In late March 2020, an secret agent responded to one of many emails and inquired in regards to the treatment package, investigators stated. When Staley and the agent spoke on the phone soon after, the doctor falsely claimed that hydroxychloroquine was a “magic bullet” and an “amazing cure” that would maintain somebody immune from covid for at the very least six weeks, in line with court docket records.

“It’s preventive and healing,” Staley mentioned to the secret agent, court paperwork present. “It’s onerous to believe, it’s nearly too good to be true. But it’s a exceptional scientific phenomenon.”

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

When asked by the agent whether the remedy was a “guaranteed” cure for covid, Staley stated sure but certified that “there’s all the time exceptions” and “there are not any guarantees in life,” courtroom information present.

Through the name, Staley also informed the agent how he was sourcing the hydroxychloroquine. He said that he “got the last tank of hydroxychloroquine smuggled out of China,” information show, and that he “tricked customs” by labeling the barrel as “sweet potato extract.” He added that the powder was sufficient 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, despite never asking him “any medical questions,” prosecutors said. The agent ordered six kits — sufficient for himself and five members of the family — for $4,000, according to courtroom documents.

A Florida man received hundreds of thousands in coronavirus aid. 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 certainly one 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 brokers through the investigation.

“Dr. Staley provided a ‘magic bullet’ — a assured remedy for COVID-19 to individuals gripped in concern throughout a worldwide pandemic,” FBI Special Agent in Cost Suzanne Turner mentioned in a news release when Staley pleaded responsible. “At the moment, 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 effective and to give back the $4,000 the federal agent paid for his household’s equipment. He additionally had to hand over “more than 4,500 tablets of various pharmaceutical medication, a number of luggage of empty pill capsules, and a manual capsule-filling machine,” prosecutors stated.

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