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TALLAHASSEE, FL - Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that a former Gulf County resident has been arrested for exploiting a disabled adult and defrauding over $70,000 from the victim. John Stephen Onorato was arrested in Augusta, Georgia by authorities with the Richmond County Sheriff's Office with assistance from the South Carolina Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, on a warrant issued by the Florida Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

Medicaid fraud investigators began investigating Onorato, 68, after being contacted by his victim. The victim told investigators that after he was critically injured in a motor vehicle accident, Onorato obtained a power of attorney over him and stole over $70,000 from him. Onorato also fraudulently registered the victim to receive Medicaid benefits. .

Onorato is charged with one count of grand theft and one count of exploitation of a disabled adult, both second-degree felonies. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. The case will be prosecuted by the State Attorney’s Office for the 14th Judicial Circuit after Onorato is extradited back to Florida.