San Diego doctor Jennings Staley sentenced in hydroxychloroquine scheme

In March and April of 2020, as the coronavirus unfold and people remoted in their properties, a physician in San Diego boasted that he had his arms on a “miracle cure,” in response to prosecutors — hydroxychloroquine.

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

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

“At the peak of the pandemic, before vaccines have been out there, this doctor sought to profit from patients’ fears,” U.S. Lawyer Randy Grossman said in a news release. “He abused his place of belief and undermined the integrity of your entire medical career.”

Staley’s lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Monday.

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

Hydroxychloroquine is often prescribed to folks with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and is used to treat malaria. The drug was repeatedly touted by President Donald Trump, beginning within the early days of the pandemic, as a “sport changer.” Trump’s endorsement precipitated demand for the drug to spike, leading to shortages and in the end affecting those that wanted it for non-covid well being issues. Research later found that hydroxychloroquine just isn't an efficient treatment for covid and did not forestall people from becoming sick.

Based on prosecutors, federal agents started looking into Staley after concerned clients alerted the FBI to the advertising and marketing emails from Skinny Seaside Med Spa. The enterprise marketed “world-class magnificence improvements at inexpensive prices,” court docket paperwork present, and supplied companies including Botox, fat transfer, hair removing and tattoo removing.

The covid therapy equipment 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 medications, records present.

In late March 2020, an secret agent responded to one of many emails and inquired concerning the treatment equipment, investigators mentioned. When Staley and the agent spoke on the phone quickly after, the doctor falsely claimed that hydroxychloroquine was a “magic bullet” and an “wonderful cure” that will maintain somebody immune from covid for at least six weeks, in keeping with court docket data.

“It’s preventive and curative,” Staley stated to the spy, court paperwork show. “It’s arduous to imagine, it’s almost too good to be true. But it’s a exceptional medical phenomenon.”

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

When asked by the agent whether the medication was a “guaranteed” treatment for covid, Staley mentioned sure but qualified that “there’s always exceptions” and “there aren't any ensures in life,” court data present.

Through the name, Staley additionally informed the agent how he was sourcing the hydroxychloroquine. He mentioned that he “bought the last tank of hydroxychloroquine smuggled out of China,” data show, 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 variations of Viagra and Xanax, a federally controlled substance, despite by no means asking him “any medical questions,” prosecutors said. The agent ordered six kits — enough for himself and 5 relations — for $4,000, based on courtroom paperwork.

A Florida man obtained thousands and thousands 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 part of his plea agreement, Staley additionally 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 brokers through the investigation.

“Dr. Staley offered a ‘magic bullet’ — a assured remedy for COVID-19 to individuals gripped in worry during a worldwide pandemic,” FBI Special Agent in Cost Suzanne Turner mentioned in a information release when Staley pleaded guilty. “At this time, Dr. Staley admitted it was all a lie as a part of a scam to make a quick buck.”

As a part of his sentencing on Friday, Staley was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and to offer back the $4,000 the federal agent paid for his family’s equipment. He also needed to hand over “more than 4,500 tablets of varied pharmaceutical medicine, a number of bags of empty tablet capsules, and a guide capsule-filling machine,” prosecutors mentioned.

In keeping with information from the medical board of California, Staley’s license has been quickly suspended by a courtroom order.