Ohio-Based Energy Company Fined $230 Million in Bribery Scandal
First Energy Corp., one of the largest investor-owned electric systems in the country, allegedly bribed state officials in order to push through a bill that would have given them a $1 billion bailout in a scheme that entangled prominent politicians, including former Ohio House Speaker Rep. Larry Householder.
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Akron, Ohio, based FirstEnergy Corp. has agreed to pay a $230 million fine for its central role in a bribery scheme — the goal of which was to get legislation passed that included a $1 billion bailout for two of its power plants in Ohio, reports NPR. Federal prosecutors charged FirstEnergy with conspiring to commit honest services wire fraud and the utility company agreed to pay the multimillion-dollar penalty as part of a deferred prosecution agreement. In return, the government will drop the charge against the company if it complies with the deal over the next three years. While the fine is technically one of the largest criminal penalties ever collected, it’s far less than the more than $1 billion the company, which is considered one of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric systems, made just last year.
FirstEnergy’s bribery scheme entangled several Ohio lobbyists and political officials, most notably now-former Ohio House Speaker Rep. Larry Householder, that the government alleges did the company’s bidding in return for money. According to federal indictments, from 2017 to March 2020 FirstEnergy Corp. funneled $60 million to Householder, a 501(c)(4) group controlled by Householder, his aides, and other political officials, through his tax-exempt organization, Generation Now, which was created just for this purpose. Householder took $500,000 of that for personal use, the Justice Department alleges, and, in exchange, worked to pass a bill which contained a $1 billion ratepayer-funded rescue package for FirstEnergy power plants. It would have added a new fee to every electricity bill in Ohio. Householder also received funds to kill a ballot initiative that aimed to defeat the legislation.
