San Diego physician Jennings Staley sentenced in hydroxychloroquine scheme

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

In mass-marketing emails from his enterprise, Skinny Seaside Med Spa, Jennings Ryan Staley stated the drug was included in his coronavirus “treatment kits,” despite the medication changing into more and more scarce. But Staley had a method of getting it, he later informed an undercover federal agent. He planned to smuggle in a barrel of hydroxychloroquine powder with the help of a Chinese language provider, prosecutors stated.

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

“At the peak of the pandemic, earlier than vaccines had been accessible, this physician sought to revenue from patients’ fears,” U.S. Legal professional Randy Grossman said in a news release. “He abused his place of belief and undermined the integrity of the complete medical profession.”

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

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

Hydroxychloroquine is often prescribed to people with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and is used to treat malaria. The drug was repeatedly touted by President Donald Trump, starting in the early days of the pandemic, as a “sport changer.” Trump’s endorsement induced demand for the drug to spike, leading to shortages and in the end affecting those that wanted it for non-covid health issues. Research later discovered that hydroxychloroquine is not an efficient therapy for covid and did not forestall individuals from becoming sick.

In line with prosecutors, federal brokers started looking into Staley after involved clients alerted the FBI to the advertising and marketing emails from Skinny Seaside Med Spa. The enterprise advertised “world-class magnificence improvements at affordable costs,” court docket paperwork show, and provided providers together with Botox, fat transfer, hair elimination and tattoo removal.

The covid remedy kit got here with a 30-day “concierge medical experience,” intravenous drips, access to medical hyperbaric oxygen (at an additional fee), and prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and anti-anxiety medications, information present.

In late March 2020, an undercover agent responded to one of many emails and inquired in regards to the remedy package, 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 remedy” that might maintain someone immune from covid for not less than six weeks, based on courtroom records.

“It’s preventive and curative,” Staley mentioned to the secret agent, court docket paperwork present. “It’s arduous to consider, it’s nearly too good to be true. But it surely’s a outstanding clinical phenomenon.”

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

When requested by the agent whether the treatment was a “assured” treatment for covid, Staley said yes but qualified that “there’s at all times exceptions” and “there are no guarantees in life,” court information show.

In the course of the call, Staley additionally advised the agent how he was sourcing the hydroxychloroquine. He said that he “acquired the last 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 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 never asking him “any medical questions,” prosecutors said. The agent ordered six kits — sufficient for himself and five relations — for $4,000, in accordance with court docket paperwork.

A Florida man acquired thousands and thousands in coronavirus support. 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 agreement, Staley also admitted to posing as certainly one of his workers 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 in the course of the investigation.

“Dr. Staley provided a ‘magic bullet’ — a guaranteed treatment for COVID-19 to people gripped in concern throughout a global pandemic,” FBI Special Agent in Cost Suzanne Turner stated in a news release when Staley pleaded guilty. “At present, Dr. Staley admitted it was all a lie as a part of a rip-off to make a quick buck.”

As part of his sentencing on Friday, Staley was ordered to pay a $10,000 superb and to offer again the $4,000 the federal agent paid for his household’s kit. He also had to hand over “more than 4,500 tablets of assorted pharmaceutical medication, multiple luggage of empty pill capsules, and a handbook capsule-filling machine,” prosecutors stated.

In response to records from the medical board of California, Staley’s license has been briefly suspended by a courtroom order.