San Diego doctor Jennings Staley sentenced in hydroxychloroquine scheme

In March and April of 2020, as the coronavirus unfold and folks remoted of their homes, a health care provider in San Diego boasted that he had his palms on a “miracle treatment,” in response to 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 treatment changing into increasingly scarce. However Staley had a method of getting it, he later informed an undercover federal agent. He deliberate to smuggle in a barrel of hydroxychloroquine powder with the help of a Chinese provider, prosecutors mentioned.

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

“On the height of the pandemic, before vaccines have been available, this doctor sought to revenue from patients’ fears,” U.S. Lawyer Randy Grossman said in a news launch. “He abused his place of trust and undermined the integrity of all the medical profession.”

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

How false hope spread about hydroxychloroquine to deal with covid-19 — and the implications 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 “sport changer.” Trump’s endorsement brought on demand for the drug to spike, leading to shortages and finally affecting those who wanted it for non-covid health problems. Studies later discovered that hydroxychloroquine isn't an effective treatment for covid and did not prevent folks from changing into sick.

In accordance with prosecutors, federal brokers started looking into Staley after involved customers alerted the FBI to the advertising and marketing emails from Skinny Seaside Med Spa. The business marketed “world-class magnificence innovations at inexpensive costs,” courtroom paperwork present, and offered providers including Botox, fats transfer, hair removal and tattoo removing.

The covid therapy kit came with a 30-day “concierge medical experience,” intravenous drips, access to medical hyperbaric oxygen (at an extra fee), and prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and anti-anxiety drugs, information present.

In late March 2020, an secret agent responded to one of many emails and inquired about the remedy equipment, investigators stated. When Staley and the agent spoke on the cellphone soon after, the doctor falsely claimed that hydroxychloroquine was a “magic bullet” and an “amazing remedy” that would preserve someone immune from covid for at the very least six weeks, according to court docket data.

“It’s preventive and curative,” Staley stated to the secret agent, court paperwork show. “It’s laborious to consider, it’s almost too good to be true. Nevertheless it’s a outstanding clinical phenomenon.”

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

When requested by the agent whether or not the remedy was a “assured” treatment for covid, Staley said sure however certified that “there’s always exceptions” and “there aren't any guarantees in life,” courtroom information show.

Throughout the call, Staley also informed the agent how he was sourcing the hydroxychloroquine. He stated that he “got the last tank of hydroxychloroquine smuggled out of China,” data present, and that he “tricked customs” by labeling the barrel as “sweet 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 mentioned. The agent ordered six kits — sufficient for himself and 5 relations — for $4,000, in line with courtroom paperwork.

A Florida man acquired hundreds of thousands in coronavirus support. He used it to buy a Lamborghini, prosecutors say.

Staley was charged in mid-April 2020 and pleaded responsible in July 2021. As part of his plea agreement, Staley additionally admitted to posing as one in every of his staff 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 throughout the investigation.

“Dr. Staley supplied a ‘magic bullet’ — a assured remedy for COVID-19 to people gripped in fear throughout a worldwide pandemic,” FBI Special Agent in Cost Suzanne Turner stated in a news release when Staley pleaded responsible. “Right now, Dr. Staley admitted it was all a lie as a part of a scam to make a fast buck.”

As part of his sentencing on Friday, Staley was ordered to pay a $10,000 effective and to provide back the $4,000 the federal agent paid for his household’s equipment. He also needed to hand over “greater than 4,500 tablets of varied pharmaceutical medication, a number of bags of empty pill capsules, and a handbook capsule-filling machine,” prosecutors stated.

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