Aaron Zahn, Ryan Wannemacher: Federal fraud trial of former JEA executives starts

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Opening statements are expected to begin Wednesday in the federal fraud trial of former JEA CEO Aaron Zahn and former CFO Ryan Wannemacher, with unanswered questions about who enabled the failed sale.

Zahn and Wannemacher were charged with conspiracy and wire fraud in March 2022. As Zahn was leaving the courthouse, Action News Jax Ben Becker asked Zahn, “Aaron is the Mayor’s office involved in this at all?’ At that moment, Zahn and his wife looked at each other and gave what appeared to be knowing looks.

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Zahn and Wannemacher both face up to 25 years in federal prison for in the words of prosecutors, “conspiring to steal and obtain by fraud funds from the City of Jacksonville which would have been generated from the sale of JEA.” That number? Up to $345 million.

NextEra Energy, the parent company of FPL, offered $11 billion to buy the city-owned utility, and it would have provided the city a net $6.4 billion windfall of cash.

“First thing I would do is that we pay off all of city’s debt,” former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry told Action News Jax in August 2019. Curry appointed Zahn initially to the JEA board and supported exploring a sale.

TIMELINE: Failed sale of Jacksonville public utility JEA that led to indictment of former CEO, CFO

Curry isn’t facing any charges and isn’t scheduled to testify, but in pretrial testimony, an attorney said Zahn told him Curry was “supportive” of Zahn receiving $40 million if he succeeded in selling the utility. Curry said, “that never happened.”

In December 2019, soon after Zahn was removed as CEO by the JEA board, Becker discovered Zahn and Curry made a combined 51 calls to each other over a 14-month period. They were near dates of JEA news related to the proposed sale and board meetings.

In January 2021, a Jacksonville City Council special committee published an investigative report, finding that Curry and JEA officials spent years exploring a sale of the utility with a “purposeful lack of transparency.”

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There are 85 people on the witness list for the prosecution and defense and while Curry is not one of them, former members of the Curry administration could testify, including former Chief Administrative Officers Brian Hughes and Sam Mousa.

It should be noted the discussions about a possible sale of JEA started years before Zahn became CEO.

The trial is expected to last four weeks.

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