JEA Trial: Former General Counsel says former JEA CEO ‘seething’ when bonus plan was rejected

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Action News Jax’s Ben Becker confronted former JEA lawyer Lynne Rhode as she left the federal courthouse after testifying in the JEA fraud trial.

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“Don’t you have anything better to report on than all this?” Rhodes asked.

Rhode testified as a witness on Day 10 of the JEA fraud trial. Former CEO Aaron Zahn and former CFO Ryan Wannamacher are both accused of trying to steal millions of dollars during the failed sale of the utility in 2019.

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Rhode could have profited from the JEA sale, but she testified she wasn’t interested in a success fee.

Jacksonville’s former top lawyer Jason Gabriel also delivered a devastating testimony aimed at Zahn and other members of JEA leadership. He said that Zahn was “seething” when he didn’t get his way about the Office of General Counsel approving the bonus plan.

Gabriel testified Zahn told him, “If you’re going to kill the deal, kill it.”

Read: JEA Trial: Bankers say they felt pressured to fast-track JEA utility sale

Gabriel called the bonus plan a “phantom faux stock” and “absurd.”

Becker spoke with Gabriel outside the courthouse about the case, and he simply said, “I’m just doing my duty and testifying.”

Gabriel will be back on the stand on Wednesday at 9 a.m.

We are about the halfway point of the trial. If Zahn and Wannamacher are convicted, they face up to 25 years in prison.

Read: JEA Trial: JEA VP of financial services testifies, said bonus plan was ‘untoward,’ ‘unseemly’

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