San Diego doctor Jennings Staley sentenced in hydroxychloroquine scheme

In March and April of 2020, as the coronavirus spread and folks remoted in their properties, a physician in San Diego boasted that he had his palms on a “miracle remedy,” in keeping with prosecutors — hydroxychloroquine.

In mass-marketing emails from his enterprise, Skinny Seaside Med Spa, Jennings Ryan Staley mentioned the drug was included in his coronavirus “remedy kits,” regardless of the medicine becoming increasingly scarce. But Staley had a approach 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 provider, prosecutors said.

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

“On the height of the pandemic, before vaccines were available, this doctor sought to profit from patients’ fears,” U.S. Legal professional Randy Grossman stated in a news launch. “He abused his position of belief and undermined the integrity of your complete medical career.”

Staley’s attorney did not immediately reply to requests for comment late Monday.

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

Hydroxychloroquine is commonly prescribed to people 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 in the end affecting those who needed it for non-covid health problems. Research later discovered that hydroxychloroquine is just not an efficient therapy for covid and did not prevent people from becoming sick.

In line with prosecutors, federal brokers began trying into Staley after involved customers alerted the FBI to the advertising emails from Skinny Seaside Med Spa. The business marketed “world-class magnificence improvements at affordable prices,” courtroom documents present, and offered providers including Botox, fats transfer, hair elimination and tattoo removing.

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

In late March 2020, an undercover agent responded to one of many emails and inquired about the remedy equipment, investigators said. When Staley and the agent spoke on the telephone soon after, the physician falsely claimed that hydroxychloroquine was a “magic bullet” and an “wonderful cure” that may maintain somebody immune from covid for not less than six weeks, in accordance with court docket information.

“It’s preventive and curative,” Staley said to the secret agent, court documents show. “It’s arduous to consider, it’s nearly too good to be true. However it’s a exceptional clinical 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 treatment was a “guaranteed” remedy for covid, Staley mentioned sure however qualified that “there’s at all times exceptions” and “there are no ensures in life,” court docket data present.

Throughout the name, Staley additionally informed the agent how he was sourcing the hydroxychloroquine. He stated that he “got 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 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 — enough for himself and five relations — for $4,000, in keeping with court docket documents.

A Florida man acquired millions in coronavirus assist. 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 settlement, Staley additionally admitted to posing as one in every of his employees to fill a prescription for hydroxychloroquine to then use it in his kits, prosecutors mentioned. 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 cure for COVID-19 to individuals gripped in fear during a worldwide pandemic,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Suzanne Turner stated in a news release when Staley pleaded responsible. “As we speak, Dr. Staley admitted it was all a lie as a part of a rip-off to make a fast buck.”

As part of his sentencing on Friday, Staley was ordered to pay a $10,000 effective and to give again the $4,000 the federal agent paid for his household’s package. He additionally needed to hand over “greater than 4,500 tablets of varied pharmaceutical medicine, a number of bags of empty tablet capsules, and a guide capsule-filling machine,” prosecutors said.

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