San Diego doctor Jennings Staley sentenced in hydroxychloroquine scheme

In March and April of 2020, because the coronavirus unfold and other people isolated in their houses, a health care provider in San Diego boasted that he had his arms 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 “therapy kits,” regardless of the medication becoming more and more scarce. However Staley had a way of getting it, he later told an undercover federal agent. He planned to smuggle in a barrel of hydroxychloroquine powder with the help of a Chinese language supplier, prosecutors mentioned.

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

“At the top of the pandemic, before vaccines were out there, this physician sought to profit from patients’ fears,” U.S. Lawyer Randy Grossman stated in a news release. “He abused his position of trust and undermined the integrity of all the medical profession.”

Staley’s attorney didn't immediately reply to requests for remark late Monday.

How false hope unfold about hydroxychloroquine to treat covid-19 — and the consequences that adopted

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 induced demand for the drug to spike, leading to shortages and ultimately affecting those who wanted it for non-covid health issues. Research later discovered that hydroxychloroquine just isn't an efficient remedy for covid and did not forestall folks from turning into sick.

In accordance with prosecutors, federal brokers started trying into Staley after involved prospects alerted the FBI to the advertising and marketing emails from Skinny Beach Med Spa. The enterprise marketed “world-class magnificence innovations at affordable prices,” court docket paperwork show, and supplied services including Botox, fat transfer, hair removing and tattoo elimination.

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

In late March 2020, an spy responded to one of the emails and inquired concerning the treatment kit, investigators mentioned. When Staley and the agent spoke on the cellphone quickly after, the doctor falsely claimed that hydroxychloroquine was a “magic bullet” and an “wonderful remedy” that would preserve somebody immune from covid for at the very least six weeks, in line with court records.

“It’s preventive and curative,” Staley stated to the secret agent, court docket documents show. “It’s laborious to believe, it’s nearly too good to be true. But it surely’s a remarkable scientific phenomenon.”

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

When asked by the agent whether or not the treatment was a “assured” remedy for covid, Staley stated yes however certified that “there’s always exceptions” and “there are no ensures in life,” court docket data show.

Through the call, Staley also informed the agent how he was sourcing the hydroxychloroquine. He said that he “bought the last tank of hydroxychloroquine smuggled out of China,” records present, 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 variations of Viagra and Xanax, a federally controlled 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, in line with courtroom paperwork.

A Florida man obtained thousands and thousands 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 settlement, Staley additionally admitted to posing as one in all his staff 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 brokers in the course of the investigation.

“Dr. Staley provided a ‘magic bullet’ — a guaranteed treatment for COVID-19 to people gripped in concern throughout a global pandemic,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Suzanne Turner mentioned in a news launch when Staley pleaded guilty. “Right this moment, Dr. Staley admitted it was all a lie as a 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 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 assorted pharmaceutical medicine, a number of bags of empty pill capsules, and a guide capsule-filling machine,” prosecutors mentioned.

In keeping with information from the medical board of California, Staley’s license has been briefly suspended by a courtroom order.