San Diego physician Jennings Staley sentenced in hydroxychloroquine scheme

In March and April of 2020, as the coronavirus unfold and people isolated of their properties, a doctor in San Diego boasted that he had his fingers on a “miracle remedy,” based on prosecutors — hydroxychloroquine.

In mass-marketing emails from his enterprise, Skinny Beach Med Spa, Jennings Ryan Staley said the drug was included in his coronavirus “remedy kits,” despite the remedy changing into more and more scarce. However Staley had a approach of getting it, he later advised an undercover federal agent. He planned to smuggle in a barrel of hydroxychloroquine powder with the help of a Chinese supplier, prosecutors mentioned.

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

“On the peak of the pandemic, before vaccines have been out there, this physician sought to profit from sufferers’ fears,” U.S. Legal professional Randy Grossman mentioned in a news launch. “He abused his position of trust and undermined the integrity of the whole medical profession.”

Staley’s legal professional didn't instantly respond to requests for comment late Monday.

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

Hydroxychloroquine is commonly prescribed to individuals 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 “game changer.” Trump’s endorsement caused demand for the drug to spike, leading to shortages and in the end affecting those who needed it for non-covid well being problems. Studies later found that hydroxychloroquine just isn't an effective remedy for covid and did not forestall people from turning into sick.

In keeping with prosecutors, federal brokers began looking into Staley after involved customers alerted the FBI to the marketing emails from Skinny Seaside Med Spa. The business marketed “world-class beauty innovations at reasonably priced prices,” court docket documents show, and supplied services including Botox, fat transfer, hair elimination and tattoo removing.

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

In late March 2020, an spy responded to one of the emails and inquired in regards to the treatment equipment, investigators mentioned. When Staley and the agent spoke on the telephone quickly after, the physician falsely claimed that hydroxychloroquine was a “magic bullet” and an “wonderful treatment” that might keep someone immune from covid for at the very least six weeks, according to court information.

“It’s preventive and healing,” Staley said to the undercover agent, court docket documents show. “It’s exhausting to believe, it’s nearly too good to be true. However it’s a outstanding scientific phenomenon.”

He added that the virus “literally disappears in hours” after a person takes the drug.

When asked by the agent whether or not the medication was a “guaranteed” treatment for covid, Staley stated yes however qualified that “there’s at all times exceptions” and “there are not any ensures in life,” courtroom records present.

In the course of the name, Staley additionally instructed the agent how he was sourcing the hydroxychloroquine. He said that he “bought 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 provided the agent prescriptions for generic versions of Viagra and Xanax, a federally managed substance, regardless of by no means asking him “any medical questions,” prosecutors said. The agent ordered six kits — sufficient for himself and five family members — for $4,000, in line with courtroom paperwork.

A Florida man obtained thousands and thousands in coronavirus support. 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 one in every 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 brokers through the investigation.

“Dr. Staley provided a ‘magic bullet’ — a guaranteed treatment for COVID-19 to individuals gripped in fear throughout a global pandemic,” FBI Particular Agent in Charge Suzanne Turner mentioned in a information release when Staley pleaded guilty. “Today, Dr. Staley admitted it was all a lie as part of a scam to make a quick buck.”

As part of his sentencing on Friday, Staley was ordered to pay a $10,000 effective and to provide again the $4,000 the federal agent paid for his household’s package. He additionally had to hand over “more than 4,500 tablets of assorted pharmaceutical drugs, a number of bags of empty pill capsules, and a manual capsule-filling machine,” prosecutors stated.

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