Former JEA CEO Aaron Zahn is surrounded by family and supporters as he leaves the Bryan Former JEA CEO Aaron Zahn walks out of the Bryan Simpson U.S. courthouse in Downtown Jacksonville after being convicted of conspiracy and wire fraud March 15, 2024. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on September 21, 2026 at 11:15 am
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This story was originally published by The Florida Trib.
Aaron Zahn, the former head of JEA found guilty of charges connected to his contentious push to sell Northeast Florida’s public utility to enrich himself and his top executives in 2019, has been released from federal prison.
Zahn, now 46, was found guilty of conspiracy and wire fraud after a monthlong trial and sentenced to four years in federal prison in 2024. After a federal judge granted him a six-month delay after his home was damaged during hurricane season, Zahn reported to the medium-security prison FCI Edgefield in South Carolina in January of 2025.
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Now, 20 months later, Zahn is currently located at a Residential Reentry Management field office, or halfway house, in Orlando. His release date is listed as Jan. 12, 2027, according to an online database of federal inmates.
Zahn’s appeal
In June of this year, a three-judge federal appeals panel met Zahn’s bid to throw out his convictions with skepticism. His lawyers called the prosecution “politically charged,” arguing that the property he was found guilty of defrauding “never existed” because the city doesn’t actually own the water, electric and sewer utility.
The appeal is still pending, according to federal court records.
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The effort to sell JEA, Florida’s largest public utility, was backed by then-Mayor Lenny Curry, during which prosecutors said Zahn and his top executives devised a scheme to skim millions off the top of potential sale proceeds through a convoluted pay-for-performance plan. The privatization effort was eventually called off after public outcry.
Zahn was fired as CEO, and after an FBI investigation and years of legal proceedings, he was indicted by a grand jury and found guilty in 2024.
