Former JEA CEO Aaron Zahn will report to federal prison Jan. 27 instead of Oct. 28 because his family’s home in Tampa was damaged by hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Senior U.S. District Judge Brian Davis, who presided over the trial in which Zahn was found guilty of conspiracy and wire fraud and sentenced to serve four years in federal prison, signed the extension order Oct. 23.
In the motion for extension filed Oct. 17, Zahn said his family’s home is “substantially destroyed.”
The motion states that Hurricane Helene on Sept. 24-25 flooded the home and then during Hurricane Milton on Oct. 9, an oak tree fell on the home, severely damaging an exterior wall and causing the entire structure to be unstable.
The motion states that processing the insurance claim and moving Zahn’s wife and children into another home will take at least 60 days and possibly longer, based on the number of insurance claims filed in Florida after the storms.
Zahn was found guilty by a jury March 15 of the conspiracy and wire fraud charges related to the failed proposed sale of JEA and an employee bonus plan that was rejected by the utility’s board of directors.
Former JEA CFO Ryan Wannamacher, Zahn’s co-defendant in the trial, was found not guilty.
On July 30, Davis sentenced Zahn to 48 months imprisonment on each of the two charges, ordering the sentences to run concurrently as opposed to consecutively. He ruled that Zahn could report to prison voluntarily, and in response to a request by the defense gave him 90 days, until Oct. 28, to report to the Bureau of Prisons to begin his sentence.
Zahn filed an appeal Aug. 13 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit
