Jennings Ryan Staley pleaded guilty last year to trying to smuggle hydroxychloroquine into the U.S. to sell as part of a COVID-19 “treatment kit.” Beyond his prison sentence, he will also be confined to his home for one year, according to U.S. attorneys.
“At the height of the pandemic, before vaccines were available, this doctor sought to profit from patients’ fears,” U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said in a statement. “He abused his position of trust and undermined the integrity of the entire medical profession.”
Staley admitted (https://fortune.com/2022/05/31/doc-sold-hydroxychloroquine-goes-to-jail-30-days/) to working with a Chinese supplier to smuggle in a barrel containing 26 pounds of hydroxychloroquine powder by mislabeling it as “yam extract.” He planned to use this powder as capsules in COVID-19 “treatment kits” he sold to customers of his Skinny Beach Med Spas in the San Diego area at the beginning of the pandemic, promoting them as a “100%” cure, a “magic bullet,” an “amazing weapon,” and “almost too good to be true” in conversations with an undercover FBI agent who posed as a potential customer.
He also claimed the product would provide six weeks of immunity.
