Kansas City, Mo ? Restitution checks to victims of a former Kansas City pharmacist who diluted cancer treatments could start going out by the end of the year, federal court officials said.

Just more than 1,000 claimants, including family members of deceased victims, have been approved to receive equal amounts from the $11 million restitution fund, created from Robert Courtney’s seized assets.

Courtney is serving a 30-year sentence for diluting cancer patients’ chemotherapy drugs at his Research Medical Tower pharmacy in Kansas City.

U.S. Magistrate Robert E. Larsen is conducting informal appeal hearings for those whose applications for restitution have been denied.

Officials are working to make sure the process is fair and thorough, said chief deputy clerk Paige Wymore-Wynn.

“We are putting in our best effort so that we can ensure that everybody who deserves a portion of the restitution payment will get their portion of the restitution payments,” she said. “It’s been a long and tedious process, but we have appreciated the patience of the claimants.”

The informal appeals hearings are expected to be completed soon, Wymore-Wynn said, and the next step is to put together the formula for distributing the restitution funds.

In February, U.S. District Judge Ortrie Smith approved the restitution process, writing in his ruling that “it would be administratively burdensome (if not impossible) to ascertain each victim’s actual loss.”

About 1,150 people who thought they had received the diluted drugs filed claims earlier this year. The deadline was in April.

Since then, federal court officials have been processing the claim forms, which ranged from 10 to 100 pages. The court will issue checks only after every claim form and appeals hearing have been concluded.

Courtney pleaded guilty to 20 counts of misbranding, tampering with and adulterating drugs. The motivation, he said, was greed.

He also admitted that he had tampered with 72 medications since 1992. Federal investigators have estimated that the dilutions possibly affected as many as 4,200 patients.