A three-judge federal appeals panel on Tuesday showed some skepticism toward ex-JEA CEO Aaron Zahn’s bid to throw out his high-profile 2024 convictions of wire fraud and conspiracy.

In a packed 11th Circuit Court of Appeals courtroom in downtown Jacksonville, Zahn’s lawyers argued that JEA – Jacksonville’s public electric, water and sewer utility – isn’t actually owned by the city. It’s a “popular misconception that a local government owns a local utility,” Sam Salario, one of Zahn’s lawyers said. That matters, he argued, because Zahn couldn’t have possibly defrauded the city during his contentious push to sell the utility to a private company, as federal prosecutors asserted during his trial two years ago.

That argument drew pushback from U.S. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Branch, who said she struggled with the basis of the argument that the city was not entitled to sell JEA. 

In their written brief, lawyers questioned how Zahn could have defrauded the city of “property” that “never existed.” Judge Robin Rosenbaum pushed back on that line of thinking. If that were true, “you could never charge for an attempt,” said Rosenbaum. “And that’s just not the law.”

Zahn was convicted after a month-long trial centered on his controversial effort to sell JEA in 2019. During the course of that effort, which was backed by then-Mayor Lenny Curry, prosecutors said Zahn and his top executives secretly devised a plan to enrich themselves by skimming millions off the top of potential sale proceeds through a convoluted pay-for-performance plan.

City and JEA leaders eventually called the privatization effort off after public acrimony mounted. Zahn was fired and eventually under investigation by the FBI, kicking off years of legal proceedings during which Zahn’s attorneys attempted to convince a federal judge to toss his grand jury indictment.  

Prosecutors also faced some skepticism from the panel Tuesday. 

In a back-and-forth with Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Chang, an animated U.S. Circuit Judge Gerald Tjoflat also questioned whether the city owns JEA. He told Chang that section 21 of Jacksonville’s city charter sets up “everything we need to know” about the independence of JEA.

Zahn’s tenure at JEA and his trial were closely followed by Jacksonville media. That high-profile attention is also the basis of other objections Salario has raised to Zahn’s conviction. 

Zahn is serving out his sentence in a federal prison in South Carolina. 

It’s unclear when the appeals court will reach a decision in the case.

Laura Pellicer is a fellow at The Florida Trib. She is a master’s student at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY in New York City, where she focuses on local accountability, data, and engagement reporting. Her award-winning reporting often explores health and science, with an emphasis on the environment. Laura began her career as a researcher at CBC Montreal, and has worked as an independent audio producer, and a reporter for NPR station WUNC. You can reach Laura at laura.pellicer@floridatrib.org.