San Diego physician Jennings Staley sentenced in hydroxychloroquine scheme

In March and April of 2020, as the coronavirus unfold and people remoted in their houses, a health care provider in San Diego boasted that he had his arms on a “miracle remedy,” in keeping with prosecutors — hydroxychloroquine.

In mass-marketing emails from his business, Skinny Seaside Med Spa, Jennings Ryan Staley stated the drug was included in his coronavirus “treatment kits,” regardless of the remedy changing into increasingly scarce. But Staley had a way of getting it, he later informed an undercover federal agent. He planned to smuggle in a barrel of hydroxychloroquine powder with the assistance of a Chinese language provider, prosecutors mentioned.

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

“At the top of the pandemic, before vaccines have been out there, this physician sought to revenue from sufferers’ fears,” U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman stated in a news launch. “He abused his place of belief and undermined the integrity of the whole medical career.”

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

How false hope spread about hydroxychloroquine to treat covid-19 — and the consequences 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 “sport changer.” Trump’s endorsement prompted demand for the drug to spike, leading to shortages and finally affecting those that needed it for non-covid health issues. Research later found that hydroxychloroquine will not be an efficient therapy for covid and did not prevent individuals from changing into sick.

Based on prosecutors, federal agents began wanting into Staley after involved clients alerted the FBI to the advertising and marketing emails from Skinny Seashore Med Spa. The business marketed “world-class magnificence improvements at affordable costs,” court docket paperwork show, and offered providers including Botox, fats transfer, hair elimination and tattoo removing.

The covid treatment package came with a 30-day “concierge medical expertise,” intravenous drips, entry to medical hyperbaric oxygen (at an extra price), and prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and anti-anxiety drugs, information show.

In late March 2020, an secret agent responded to one of the emails and inquired in regards to the treatment package, investigators mentioned. When Staley and the agent spoke on the telephone quickly after, the doctor falsely claimed that hydroxychloroquine was a “magic bullet” and an “wonderful cure” that may hold somebody immune from covid for at the least six weeks, in keeping with courtroom information.

“It’s preventive and curative,” Staley said to the secret agent, court docket documents present. “It’s exhausting to consider, it’s almost too good to be true. But it surely’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 medicine was a “guaranteed” remedy for covid, Staley stated yes however qualified that “there’s always exceptions” and “there are not any ensures in life,” court records show.

Through the name, Staley also advised the agent how he was sourcing the hydroxychloroquine. He stated that he “acquired 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 enough to make 8,000 doses in gelatin capsules.

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

A Florida man received tens of millions in coronavirus aid. He used it to purchase 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 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 agents during the investigation.

“Dr. Staley provided a ‘magic bullet’ — a guaranteed treatment for COVID-19 to individuals gripped in worry throughout a world pandemic,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Suzanne Turner said in a news release when Staley pleaded responsible. “Immediately, Dr. Staley admitted it was all a lie as a 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 offer back the $4,000 the federal agent paid for his family’s equipment. He additionally had to hand over “greater than 4,500 tablets of assorted pharmaceutical medicine, multiple luggage of empty capsule capsules, and a handbook capsule-filling machine,” prosecutors stated.

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