The teenager who gained notoriety for allegedly posing as a doctor and who is now facing charges in two states for fraud and theft, at one point last year, had a real job in the medical field, making a professional's salary.
Malachi Love-Robinson worked for months at a Boynton Beach drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility, where his employers said they thought he had a Ph.D.
Love-Robinson was hired in June 2015 as program director at New Directions Treatment Center, and his job included counselling patients. His salary was impressive for a then-18-year-old who has never confirmed whether he graduated from high school.
"He was probably making between $65,000 and $70,000, I would say, for his level," said Dr. Lisa Cicetti, New Directions owner and psychologist. "If we believed he's a doctor, we're not going to give him $30,000."
Patients and a former manager said Love-Robinson participated in discussions about patients' treatment.
"He was in every executive meeting, every clinical meeting, because he came in and said he was an M.D.," Doug Hallman said.
Love-Robinson counselled Brittany Suggs, 28, who had left her baby son temporarily in Georgia and came to Florida for a four-month attempt at getting her life on track.
"I always knew there was something off about him, but I couldn't put my finger on it, but every time I would ask him, like how old he was, when he graduated from high school, where he went to high school, he wouldn't say," Suggs said.
Suggs said Love-Robinson counselled her for an hour each week, recommended she change medications and asked personal questions.
"I feel violated, I feel angry about it," Suggs said.
Suggs wasn't the only New Directions patient shocked to later learn that Love-Robinson, who was briefly promoted to clinical director, was not a licensed doctor.
"At first I kind of laughed it off, and then I really thought about what it meant that he was a fake doctor and how much he knew about me and other friends of mine, and I got furious, I felt so violated," said former patient Jeff Woods.
So how did the teenager with no real credentials manage to pose as a medical professional, and counsel vulnerable patients?
"He fooled all of us," Cicetti said.
Cicetti said Love-Robinson told her he had a Ph.D in psychology, and he'd been raised in France.
"When he came to us he said he was 28, and he was sick for ten years in France, and when he came to the United States that they made a mistake and put his date of arrival on the birth certificate instead of his date of birth," Cicetti said.
Love-Robinson also provided a diploma from Arizona State University, purportedly awarding him a Ph.D in psychology, as well as transcripts. The Florida Department of Health said Love-Robinson later admitted the documents were fake.
Cicetti said she found an unexplained charge on her credit card from Next Day Diplomas, with Love-Robinson's name on the bill.
According to Boynton Beach Police, that's not all the teen used her credit card for.
Their arrest report said Love-Robinson used Cicetti's bank account to pay cellphone companies, car insurers, credit cards, internet providers and paid a car dealer more than $28,000 for his new Nissan, charges totaling over $42,000.
Cicetti said when she told him to repay her money he'd used for a trip, Love-Robinson wrote her a check for $5,877, which bounced.
Cicetti went to police, and after months of investigation, they charged Love-Robinson with another grand theft charge, in addition to the 10 he was already facing in West Palm Beach.
"He was sloppy and he got caught," said Cicetti, who said she let him go when she closed the business and turned it over to new managers in late September.
In October, The Florida Department of Health began investigating Love-Robinson after receiving an anonymous complaint that he was working as a doctor at New Directions.
They determined that because clinic records did not show him treating patients, or administering drugs, he was not breaking the law.
They did, however, issue him a cease and desist order to stop practicing medicine without a license.
Five months later, health investigators and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office arrested him at a West Palm Beach medical clinic he had just opened and named "New Birth, New Life Alternative Medicine and Urgent Care Clinic."
An female undercover agent said Love-Robinson examined her and recommended treatment.
He was charged with practicing medicine without a license and practicing naturopathy without a license.
A few weeks later, he was arrested again, this time for allegedly stealing almost $40,000 from an elderly woman he'd treated in her home.
Although it begun in November, the Boynton Beach investigation was not completed until August, when detectives tacked on the new charge of allegedly stealing from Cicetti. Prosecutors also charged him with writing a worthless check to a Royal Palm Beach car dealer.
Then, Friday, Love-Robinson was arrested in Stafford County, Va., where the Sheriff's Office said he attempted to buy a Lexus using false credentials and without the knowledge of the elderly woman he said was co-signing for the car.
Court officials in VA said Love-Robinson will stay in their custody on their new charges until his next hearing in November, unless prosecutors in Palm Beach County work out a different timetable. He was due to go to trial in November on his original ten felony charges.