San Diego physician Jennings Staley sentenced in hydroxychloroquine scheme

In March and April of 2020, as the coronavirus spread and people isolated of their homes, a health care provider in San Diego boasted that he had his hands on a “miracle remedy,” in accordance with prosecutors — hydroxychloroquine.

In mass-marketing emails from his enterprise, Skinny Beach Med Spa, Jennings Ryan Staley said the drug was included in his coronavirus “therapy kits,” despite the medicine changing into increasingly scarce. But Staley had a means of getting it, he later told an undercover federal agent. He deliberate to smuggle in a barrel of hydroxychloroquine powder with the assistance of a Chinese language supplier, prosecutors stated.

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

“At the top of the pandemic, earlier than vaccines have been available, this doctor sought to profit from sufferers’ fears,” U.S. Lawyer Randy Grossman mentioned in a information release. “He abused his position of belief and undermined the integrity of your entire medical occupation.”

Staley’s lawyer didn't immediately reply to requests for comment late Monday.

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

Hydroxychloroquine is usually 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 precipitated demand for the drug to spike, resulting in shortages and ultimately affecting those who wanted it for non-covid health issues. Research later discovered that hydroxychloroquine just isn't an efficient treatment for covid and didn't stop people from becoming sick.

According to prosecutors, federal agents started trying into Staley after involved prospects alerted the FBI to the marketing emails from Skinny Seaside Med Spa. The business advertised “world-class magnificence improvements at reasonably priced prices,” court documents show, and provided providers including Botox, fats switch, hair elimination and tattoo removal.

The covid treatment package got here with a 30-day “concierge medical expertise,” intravenous drips, entry to medical hyperbaric oxygen (at an additional charge), and prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and anti-anxiety medications, records show.

In late March 2020, an undercover agent responded to one of the emails and inquired about the remedy package, investigators said. When Staley and the agent spoke on the phone quickly after, the physician falsely claimed that hydroxychloroquine was a “magic bullet” and an “amazing remedy” that will hold someone immune from covid for at the very least six weeks, in keeping with court data.

“It’s preventive and curative,” Staley mentioned to the spy, court docket paperwork show. “It’s hard to imagine, it’s virtually too good to be true. However it’s a remarkable scientific phenomenon.”

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

When requested by the agent whether the treatment was a “assured” remedy for covid, Staley said yes but qualified that “there’s all the time exceptions” and “there are not any ensures in life,” court docket data present.

Through the name, Staley also told the agent how he was sourcing the hydroxychloroquine. He stated that he “acquired the final 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 supplied the agent prescriptions for generic versions of Viagra and Xanax, a federally controlled substance, regardless of never asking him “any medical questions,” prosecutors mentioned. The agent ordered six kits — sufficient for himself and 5 relations — for $4,000, according to court docket paperwork.

A Florida man received thousands and thousands in coronavirus assist. He used it to purchase a Lamborghini, prosecutors say.

Staley was charged in mid-April 2020 and pleaded guilty in July 2021. As part of his plea settlement, 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 said. And he agreed to accusations that he lied to federal brokers during the investigation.

“Dr. Staley offered a ‘magic bullet’ — a assured remedy for COVID-19 to individuals gripped in concern throughout a world pandemic,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Suzanne Turner stated in a information launch when Staley pleaded guilty. “In the present day, Dr. Staley admitted it was all a lie as part of a rip-off to make a fast buck.”

As a part of his sentencing on Friday, Staley was ordered to pay a $10,000 wonderful and to offer again the $4,000 the federal agent paid for his household’s package. He also needed to hand over “more than 4,500 tablets of assorted pharmaceutical drugs, a number of luggage of empty capsule capsules, and a guide capsule-filling machine,” prosecutors stated.

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