First Energy avoids criminal charges with $20 million in payments in sprawling corruption case

Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. announced the deal Tuesday, a day after filing the deal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It requires the company to cooperate with ongoing investigations by the state attorney general and the Summit County prosecutor’s office, and also resolves FirstEnergy’s involvement in a civil lawsuit filed by the attorney general in 2020.

FirstEnergy will pay $19.5 million to the attorney general’s office within five business days and pay $500,000 to have an independent consultant review and confirm unspecified “changes and remedial efforts” made by the company.

Two executives fired by FirstEnergy Corp. were indicted in April as part of the long-running investigation into the scheme that has already resulted in a long prison term for a former state House speaker.

Former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones and former FirstEnergy Services Corp. senior vice president Michael Dowling have been indicted in connection with their alleged roles in the massive corruption case. Both men have denied any wrongdoing. Another man charged alongside them, former Ohio Public Utilities Commission Chairman Sam Randazzo, pleaded not guilty in both federal and state courts before taking his own life at age 74 in April.

Jones and Dowling were fired in October 2020 for violating company policies and the code of conduct.

Former House Speaker Larry Householder was sentenced in June 2023 to 20 years in prison for his role in orchestrating the scheme, and lobbyist Matt Borges, a former Ohio Republican Party chairman, was sentenced to five years.

Federal prosecutors said those involved in the scheme used the $60 million in FirstEnergy cash, financed in secret, to get Householder’s choice of Republican candidates elected to the House in 2018 and then to help him get elected president in January 2019. The money was then used to earn the pass. of the tainted energy bill, House Bill 6, and lead what authorities said was a $38 million dirty tricks campaign to prevent a repeal referendum from reaching a vote.

FirstEnergy admitted its role in the bribery scheme as part of a July 2021 deferred prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice. The company agreed to pay $230 million in penalties and make a long list of reforms within three years to avoid prosecution on a federal conspiracy charge.