The former general counsel at Tampa-based insurer WellCare Health Plans Inc. has pleaded guilty over his role in a scheme to defraud the Florida Medicaid program, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

Thaddeus Bereday pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement and faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced in federal court in Tampa. A date has not yet been scheduled.

According to the DOJ, Bereday, 52, was indicted in March 2011 along with four other ex-WellCare executives for submitting inflated expenditure information to the state agency that administers Medicaid, overstating how much the company's subsidiaries spent on behavioral health services for Medicaid patients. The scheme lasted from 2003 until 2007, the DOJ said.