San Diego doctor Jennings Staley sentenced in hydroxychloroquine scheme

In March and April of 2020, because the coronavirus unfold and folks remoted in their homes, a health care provider in San Diego boasted that he had his palms on a “miracle cure,” in line with prosecutors — hydroxychloroquine.

In mass-marketing emails from his enterprise, Skinny Seashore Med Spa, Jennings Ryan Staley mentioned the drug was included in his coronavirus “therapy kits,” despite the medication 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 help of a Chinese provider, prosecutors stated.

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

“At the top of the pandemic, before vaccines were available, this physician sought to profit from patients’ fears,” U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said in a news release. “He abused his place of trust and undermined the integrity of the entire medical career.”

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

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

Hydroxychloroquine is commonly prescribed to folks with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and is used to treat malaria. The drug was repeatedly touted by President Donald Trump, starting within the early days of the pandemic, as a “sport changer.” Trump’s endorsement precipitated demand for the drug to spike, resulting in shortages and ultimately affecting those who needed it for non-covid well being issues. Research later discovered that hydroxychloroquine just isn't an effective treatment for covid and did not stop individuals from becoming sick.

In response to prosecutors, federal agents began looking into Staley after concerned prospects alerted the FBI to the advertising emails from Skinny Beach Med Spa. The business advertised “world-class beauty innovations at reasonably priced costs,” court docket paperwork present, and offered services together with Botox, fats transfer, hair elimination and tattoo removing.

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

In late March 2020, an secret agent responded to one of many emails and inquired in regards to the treatment kit, investigators said. When Staley and the agent spoke on the cellphone quickly after, the doctor falsely claimed that hydroxychloroquine was a “magic bullet” and an “amazing treatment” that will hold somebody immune from covid for at the very least six weeks, in accordance with courtroom records.

“It’s preventive and curative,” Staley mentioned to the spy, courtroom documents show. “It’s laborious to imagine, it’s almost too good to be true. But it’s a remarkable clinical phenomenon.”

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

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

In the course of the name, Staley also instructed the agent how he was sourcing the hydroxychloroquine. He said that he “acquired the final tank of hydroxychloroquine smuggled out of China,” information 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 supplied 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 mentioned. The agent ordered six kits — sufficient for himself and 5 family members — for $4,000, in line with court docket paperwork.

A Florida man obtained hundreds of thousands in coronavirus help. 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 settlement, Staley additionally admitted to posing as 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 during the investigation.

“Dr. Staley offered a ‘magic bullet’ — a guaranteed treatment for COVID-19 to folks gripped in concern throughout a worldwide pandemic,” FBI Special Agent in Cost Suzanne Turner said in a news launch when Staley pleaded guilty. “At present, Dr. Staley admitted it was all a lie as 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 high-quality and to present again the $4,000 the federal agent paid for his household’s kit. He also had to hand over “greater than 4,500 tablets of various pharmaceutical medication, multiple bags of empty capsule capsules, and a guide capsule-filling machine,” prosecutors said.

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