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The parents all needed a therapist who could help their children with behavioral and mental health issues.

Glenn Payne, 60, appeared to fit the bill. He said he was a neuropsychologist with advanced degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, affiliations with two Brooklyn hospitals and years of experience.

But those credentials were a lie, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office said.

For at least six years, Mr. Payne provided therapy that he was not qualified to give, prosecutors said. His degrees were fake, and the hospitals had no records that he had been affiliated with them. Despite practicing clinical psychology, he was not licensed to do so in either New York or California.

On Thursday , prosecutors formally charged Mr. Payne in a 55-count indictment in Brooklyn Supreme Court. They accused him of pretending to be a licensed psychologist and treating at least 12 people, including children, who were described as “troubled,” between June 2012 and May 2018.