BATON ROUGE, La. (KLFY) – The former CEO of a Louisiana health clinic has been sentenced to over six years in prison for defrauding the Louisiana Medicaid Program.

Victor Clark Kirk, 73, of Baton Rouge, was sentenced to 82 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release following his convictions for conspiracy to commit health care fraud and health care fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Middle District of Louisiana.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office also said that he was ordered to pay $1,841,527.31 in restitution to the Louisiana Medicaid Program.

Following a six-day trial, the jury unanimously convicted Kirk of defrauding the Louisiana Medicaid Program of over $1.8 million and causing false medical diagnoses of children, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that Kirk was the CEO of St. Gabriel Health Clinic (St. Gabriel), a Louisiana non-profit corporation that provided healthcare services to Medicaid recipients.

St. Gabriel operated in local elementary and high schools to provide routine medical services. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, St. Gabriel practitioners, at Kirk’s direction, also provided educational programs to entire classrooms of students during regular class periods.

For several years, Kirk caused the fraudulent billing of these programs to Medicaid as group psychotherapy and directed St. Gabriel practitioners to falsely diagnose students with serious mental health disorders such as impulse control disorder and attention deficit disorder, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, from 2011 to 2015, Kirk caused over $1.8 million in fraudulent claims for purported group psychotherapy services.

“Criminals must be punished for their crimes, and today justice was served to Mr. Kirk,” said Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry. “Our office will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to protect our State’s most vulnerable and the taxpayers who fund their welfare.”

“The sentencing of Victor Kirk demonstrates that no one is above the law,” said U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Gathe, Jr.  “Health Care Fraud is a serious problem and I commend the trial team and all of our partners who worked tirelessly to ensure justice for not only the patients but taxpayers as well.”

The Louisiana Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, HHS-OIG, and FBI investigated the case. Assistant Chief Justin M. Woodard, Trial Attorney Kelly Z. Walters and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen L. Craig prosecuted the case.