When Greg Bell walks into the Delaware County courtroom Monday, he’ll likely have little certainty of how Common Pleas Judge David Gormley will sentence him for years of fraudulent conduct as chief financial officer of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.
But many will be watching — zoo staff and volunteers, attorneys and the public whose sense of betrayal may not have been tempered by Bell’s early admission of guilt.
On Oct. 19, Bell pleaded guilty to 14 felony counts brought in an indictment , including conspiracy, aggravated theft and 11 counts of tampering with records. He faces a maximum of 33 1/2 years in prison and more than $20,000 in fines if Gormley runs each count’s sentence consecutively, which is extremely unlikely.
As part of his guilty plea, Bell agreed to fully cooperate with prosecutors to provide evidence against other zoo executives who used public money and property for private use.
Bell’s role in the loss of about $2.3 million in zoo funds may be especially egregious, attorneys and observers say, because he’s been a CPA for decades, undertaken annual ethics and other training and was expected to implement accounting safeguards, checks and balances and bookkeeping redundancies designed to prevent the very misconduct he engaged in.