EAST LYME, Conn. (WTNH) — A man who formerly lived in East Lyme has pleaded guilty to charges of health care fraud and violating a federal anti-kickback statue, according to an announcement Thursday from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Jeffrey Slocum, 55, submitted $695,048 in fraudulent Medicaid claims from March 2020 to February 2022, according to Vanessa Roberts Avery, the United States Attorney for Connecticut. Avery said that Slocum now lives in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He was a licensed professional counselor with an office in New London at the time of the fraud.

Slocum was initially told that Medicaid was going to audit some of the claims he’d billed to the agency for psychotherapy services between March 2018 and February 2020, according to the announcement. That audit included records for about 100 sessions.

The audit, finished in March 2021, discovered that he’d received more than $225,000 for services that he hadn’t documented. Medicaid then decided to collect the overpayment by deducting money from future payments it’d make to Slocum. Afterward, he submitted even more fake claims.

The plea that he made on Thursday was related to the extra $695,048 that he’d made after March 2020. He also admitted that he’d pay kickbacks to his patients in order for them to get services from him.

He’s now required to pay full restitution. He faces up to two decades in prison when he’s sentenced on Nov. 8.