Retired salesman says he provided stolen medicines

? A retired drug salesman pleaded guilty Thursday to providing stolen drugs to pharmacist Robert R. Courtney, who has admitted he watered down cancer drugs for profit.

FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza said Courtney bought $200,000 worth of drugs from Aram C. Paraghamian that were stolen from a Denver area hospital.

Paraghamian pleaded guilty in a Kansas City courtroom to a federal charge of transporting stolen property across state lines. Paraghamian, 72, of Westminster, Colo., faces a maximum 10-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine for the crimes, which occurred between 1996 and 2001.

The stolen drugs included chemotherapy medicines Gemzar, Taxol, Paraplatin, and Platinol  the same four drugs Courtney admitted diluting.

Paraghamian’s attorney, Gerald M. Handley, said his client had no idea Courtney was watering down drugs.

“He, at no time, was aware that the pharmacist may have been engaged in the dilution of the pharmaceuticals he sold,” Handley said in a prepared statement after the hearing. “He was shocked to learn that this had occurred.”

A federal magistrate released Paraghamian on his own recognizance until his sentencing, which has not been scheduled.

Paraghamian wore a jacket, tie and spectacles as he pleaded guilty and answered questions from the witness stand. U.S. District Court Judge Nanette Laughrey asked Paraghamian whether he had done the things alleged in the charge.

“It is true,” he said. ” … I’m here to tell the truth.”

Courtney pleaded guilty last month to 20 counts of tampering with and adulterating or misbranding chemotherapy drugs. He is jailed while he awaits sentencing.

Courtney told federal investigators that he bought stolen drugs for 10 years before he was caught diluting chemotherapy medications in August, according to an account of his confession in a lawsuit filed against him by his insurance company.

Paraghamian is the third person to be implicated in bringing stolen drugs to Kansas City. Earlier this week, federal authorities said they believe Courtney got drugs from Walter J. Accurso. Accurso was never charged criminally, but he acknowledged selling stolen drugs and consented to a $33,650 civil judgment in an action initiated by federal prosecutors.

In December, pharmacy owner Gary S. Ravis of Leawood, Kan., pleaded guilty to receiving drugs stolen from a Denver-area hospital.

Chris Whitley, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said authorities have not determined who stole the drugs from the Denver hospital, which was not named.

“I have no information I can share with you,” he told reporters. “We’re still trying to draw the dots and draw the lines that connect the dots.”

Handley would not name the drug companies for which Paraghamian had worked.

In the plea agreement, Paraghamian agrees to cooperate with authorities in their investigation. In exchange, the government will not prosecute Paraghamian for any nonviolent crimes he relates to them.