Anthony Todt was a man under pressure – from creditors, landlords, Medicaid investigators and federal agents

The smiling Facebook photos and neighbors’ descriptions of his friendly, lively wife and three buoyant children say one thing about Tony Todt, but public records describe another facet – that of a man feeling the heat from, landlords, creditors, federal Medicaid investigators and the attorney general of Connecticut.

The Colchester physical therapist has been cooperating with detectives after confessing to killing his wife and three children and the family dog in the Todts’ home in Celebration, Florida. He took some Benadryl pills after the slayings, but not enough to do him any real harm, Osceola County Sheriff Russell Gibson said Wednesday.

So while the police search for a motive for an unfathomable act, public records and court affidavits showed how Todt in his private life was encircled by a federal criminal investigation into Medicaid fraud, exorbitant spending, unpaid bills and eviction notices.

He operated a physical therapy practice, listed in business records as Performance Edge Sports LLC and also known as Family Physical Therapy, out of an office suite at 7 Park Ave. in Colchester. He had another office in the Westchester section of town.

Around Thanksgiving, the Park Avenue office closed suddenly, and flustered patients who were in the middle of treatment and had to turn to other local therapists.

Records show his physical therapy license expired on Sept. 30, 2019, and Todt failed to renew it.

The Inspector General’s office in the U.S. Department of Health and Human services is investigating Todt’s business practices, as is the FBI. Sheriff Gibson said that federal agents had obtained a warrant to search the Todt home in Celebration.

In an affidavit made public Wednesday, HHS Special Agent Jeffrey W. Anderson said the inspector general and the FBI since April 2019 have been “investigating allegations that Todt and Family Physical Therapy are engaged in a health-care fraud scheme involving the submission of fraudulent claims for physical therapy sessions to the Connecticut Medicaid Program and to private health insurance plans, including Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, for physical therapy services that were not in fact rendered to patients.”

Todt billed Medicaid for tens of thousands of dollars worth of appointments that never took place, involving a series of patients. He used the fraudulently obtained money to make payments on the more than 20 short-term, high-interest loans he took from a slew of lenders, the federal affidavit says.

Todt admitted the fraud, the affidavit says.

“Todt stated that he kept having to bill for services that were not rendered to keep pace with the personal loans that he took out. When asked if he was living above his means, Todt replied, ‘That’s the best way to put it.’ When the agents asked Todt if his wife, Megan, knew about his fraudulent billing practices, Todt responded, ‘No, only me.’ Todt then asked the agents how long the investigative process would last and stated that he wanted to plead guilty,” Anderson wrote.

Five parents of children who were receiving pediatric physical therapy from Todt cooperated with HHS. The parents, variously, were covered by Medicaid, private insurance or both. Collectively, they said Todt billed their coverage for tens of thousands of dollars for treatments they never received.

Most parents said their kids arrived for treatment twice a week, but the investigation showed that the coverage was billed as much as five times a week. In two cases, Todt is accused of billing for treatments after the families had moved, in one case to North Carolina, and the other to Florida.

On Aug. 3, 2019, agents conducted surveillance at the Park Avenue office suite and at a second office on Middletown Road. Both locations were closed, but Todt billed Medicaid for therapy services to 16 different children that day. An online portal, WebPT, showed he had no patients scheduled for therapy that day. The records show Todt performed 36 hours of therapy that day.

In another instance, he claimed he was treating a young basketball player for a muscle tear long after the youth had been cleared to play and had stopped going to therapy. Todt billed Medicaid for more than $24,000 in treatment he never performed, the federal agent wrote.

Anderson’s affidavit said that Family Physical Therapy’s website in January still claimed that Todt was licensed in Connecticut.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, whose office represents the Department of Social Services, the state’s steward of federal Medicaid dollars, has also opened an investigation into Todt’s therapy practice under the federal False Claims Act, which covers health-care fraud.

In the middle 2000s, Todt’s therapy license in Florida was at one point declared “null and void” and in two other instances, was said to be in “delinquent” status, records show.

The sudden closure of Todt’s Colchester office and the impact on his patients generated a lot of talk locally, as well as posts on Facebook which have since been removed.

Some of those who have been involved with Todt’s practice said they have been interviewed by federal investigators.

Todt’s business was also heavily in debt. Over the course of late 2018 and early 2019, Todt was the subject of three civil judgments involving three creditors totaling more than $500,000.

As of Wednesday, he still owed $36,200 to Business Merchants Funding and $63,525, to Green Capital Funding LLC, records show.

Todt’s Family Physical Therapy practice also leased office space at 3 Weymouth Road in Enfield from 2014 to 2018. His quarterly rent was based on the cash flow of the business.

“In 2018, Family Physical Therapy ceased making the payments … and has surrendered and vacated the premises,” says a lawsuit filed in January by the landlord, Enfield Club Properties, LLC. The landlord is seeking more than $15,000 in damages.

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