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Former agent Melissa Osborne served in the FBI for six years. A licensed pharmacist prior to her appointment, she worked on a White-Collar Crime Squad in the Kansas City Field Office, investigating Healthcare Fraud, Telemarketing Fraud and Intellectual Property Rights during her Bureau career. Melissa was also a member of the Kansas City Field Office Evidence Response Team (ERT).
In this episode of FBI Retired Case File Review, Melissa reviews the FBI major case code named Diluted Trust. The investigation involved Robert Courtney, a Kansas City pharmacist who diluted cancer drugs that he prepared for physicians. As a licensed pharmacist, Melissa Osborne lent her expertise to the chemo pharmacy fraud investigation. Robert Courtney pleaded guilty to intentionally diluting 98,000 prescriptions given to 4,200 patients. He was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. The Diluted Trust case has been a topic on an episode of CNBC’s American Greed called “Deadly Rx for Greed” and a documentary on the Oxygen Network show License to Kill.
Melissa left the FBI in 2003 and returned to her former profession as a pharmacist. She has owned her own pharmacy, worked in transplant pharmacy, geriatric pharmacy, compounding pharmacy, and psychiatric pharmacy. Melissa has also served as an Adjunct Faculty Member for several pharmacy schools. She was awarded the 2008 National Community Pharmacy Associations (NCPAA) Preceptor of the Year Award for her work as a preceptor to pharmacy students sharing lessons learned from the Diluted Trust case. Melissa is working on a book about the investigation.
Special Agent (Former)
Melissa Osborne
1997 – 2003
“We get the lab results from those covert purchases. These doses should have been exactly what she ordered. The highest was 28 percent of what [the doctor] ordered. The lowest was around zero percent, hardly a trace of medication.”—Former Agent Melissa Osborne
The following are links to articles and documentaries about the Diluted Trust investigation:
The Kansas City Star – Pharmacist Robert Courtney admits he diluted drugs
New York Times – 6/8/2003: The Toxic Pharmacist
CNBC AMERICAN GREED: SEASON 2 – Deadly Rx For Greed Evidence Files
Oxygen – License To Kill (VIDEO): S2 – E6 – Deadly Pharmacist
Oxygen Network – License To Kill-Extra (VIDEO): Former FBI Special Agent Discusses Robert Courtney
Excellent story on pharmacist who diluted chemo drugs. Was Courtney an actual FBI agent or did they just give her a special field appointment so they could use her to catch this guy ? I cannot imagine any pharmacist wanting to work for or be an agent for the FBI.
A forensic accounting would have revealed the discrepancy between the amount of drug ordered and the amount billed to insurance.
Sadly, these patients would die even with the correct drug treatment. He did cheat these families out of time with their loved ones.
How interesting that a doctor was chosen to narrate this story. Its usually the doctor that is the subject of investigation and not the pharmacist.
Thanks for listening! Melissa Osborne was a pharmacist who served as an FBI agent for several years before resigning and returning to work in the pharmaceutical industry. She was my guest to review her old case.