FirstEnergy has agreed to pay $20 million in a settlement with the state of Ohio in its criminal investigation into the House Bill 6 scandal. The deal is the latest in the $60 million bribery scheme that involved Republican former House speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio Republican Party chair Matt Borges, who are both in federal prison.
News of the settlement came in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which noted that the state and Summit County had agreed not to prosecute FirstEnergy after the company’s “substantial cooperation” in the state's criminal case involving former FirstEnergy executives Chuck Jones and Michael Dowling. Former public utilities commission chair Sam Randazzo was also charged before he died by suicide in April.
The filing notes FirstEnergy's obligations in the deal avoiding criminal prosecution: the $20 million payout and two years of continued cooperation with the state, including providing non-privileged documents, records, information and evidence.
FirstEnergy had admitted in 2021 that it bribed Householder and Randazzo to get and keep the billion dollar nuclear power plant bailout known as HB 6 and agreed to a $230 million fine.
FirstEnergy President and CEO Brian X. Tierney said in a statement that it's pleased about the resolution, "which recognizes the substantial actions FirstEnergy has taken to establish a highly effective compliance program and instill a culture of ethics and integrity at every level of the organization. FirstEnergy, led by a new Board of Directors and executive team, is a stronger organization today, energized by our commitments to our stakeholders and well positioned for the future."
The Ohio attorney general's office noted the agreement requires FirstEnergy to share evidence and access to witnesses for both the criminal cases involving Jones and Dowling as well as civil suits related to HB 6.
A statement from AG spokesman Steve Irwin also said, "FirstEnergy today is not the company it was five years ago – the corporation has undertaken, and continues to undergo, reforms to strengthen its internal ethics programs, to increase transparency, and promote reporting of questionable conduct by its employees and leadership. It has also restructured its board and leadership to remove the individuals responsible for the conduct that gave rise to the House Bill 6 scandal. This is an important step in bringing the disgraced corporate leaders who used their positions of power to betray FirstEnergy’s ratepayers and employees and the people of Ohio to account for their crimes.”
Householder is facing state charges for allegedly illegally using a million dollars in campaign contributions to pay for his legal team and lying on state ethics forms about it. Householder are Borges were both convicted of racketeering in federal court for their roles in the HB 6 scandal. Householder is serving a 20-year prison sentence; Borges is serving five years.
