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Former DeWine aide warned governor about utility regulator before the FBI raided his home
More than two years before FirstEnergy Corp. admitted to paying Ohio’s top utility regulator a $4.3 million bribe, Mike DeWine’s former campaign treasurer warned senior aides to the new governor about the eventual nominee’s “opaque and undisclosed” financial ties to the company. The warning came in a 198-page dossier alleging Sam Randazzo — a lawyer […]
FirstEnergy’s CEO and SVP ordered $64 million bribery scheme, shareholders say
FirstEnergy’s CEO and senior vice president “devised and orchestrated” a $64 million bribery scheme to pay a top legislative leader and utility regulator in exchange for official action, according to a sworn declaration Wednesday from shareholders’ lawyers who are suing the company. While CEO Charles “Chuck” Jones and senior vice president for external affairs Michael […]
Judge gives lawyers 24 hours to identify FirstEnergy execs who ordered political bribes
Further scuttling a proposed settlement for FirstEnergy’s shareholders, a federal judge demanded their lawyers, within 24 hours, answer his question about which company officials ordered what has been described as the largest political bribery scheme in Ohio history. Both FirstEnergy and its shareholders were on the cusp of a settling the shareholders’ derivative lawsuit, announcing […]
Who paid the bribes? Judge demands answers in FirstEnergy shareholders’ suit
About seven months ago, FirstEnergy, as a company, admitted to federal law enforcement to paying out two, multimillion dollar sets of bribes: one to the former speaker of the Ohio House and one to the state’s top utility regulator. U.S. District Judge John A. Adams — in a hearing Wednesday and a related order Friday […]
Ohio judge helped write a bailout that led to arrests; now he’s blocking outside probes
A judge who oversees utility cases was involved in writing a coal and nuclear bailout now at the center of what prosecutors have described as the largest public corruption case in Ohio history, subpoenaed documents show. That same judge, Greg Price, is presiding over multiple regulatory cases in which a government watchdog agency is trying […]
Utility regulators block watchdog’s requests for info about a buried audit of a $460 million fund
An administrative judge blocked a watchdog’s attempt to obtain an audit that the Ohio utility regulatory agency’s former chairman, who has been accused of taking a $4.3 million bribe, allegedly tried to squash before publication. The ruling, released Friday evening, is a setback for the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, a state funded agency representing residential ratepayers […]
FirstEnergy pushed for ‘cooperative’ utility regulator; DeWine heeded its pick
FirstEnergy executives and two powerful politicians who the company admitted to bribing all unified behind renominating a “very cooperative” incumbent to serve on a key regulatory panel, the company stated in court filings. The filing doesn’t identify the commissioner, but only refers to an “incumbent” and then-current “PUCO official.” Commissioner Lawrence K. Friedeman was the […]
DeWine re-appoints former utility lawyer as utility regulator
Gov. Mike DeWine named attorney and incumbent utility regulator Dan Conway to renew his five-year term on the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. The selection of Conway from a shortlist curated by the PUCO’s nominating council undercuts DeWine’s pledge in January that he wouldn’t name appoint anyone to serve as regulator with ties to the […]
Feds expect Householder trial to take six weeks; could occur this fall
Federal prosecutors indicated Wednesday they expect the public corruption trial of former House Speaker Larry Householder will take about six weeks and could occur sometime this coming fall. Attorneys representing Householder and an alleged co-conspirator generally agreed a trial would take six weeks to leave time for jury selection and the parties to make their […]
FirstEnergy collected $460 million from customers; auditor unsure if it was spent on bribes
There’s no clear evidence to show the $460 million FirstEnergy Corp. charged its customers went to its stated purpose of modernizing the electric grid, a state-commissioned audit found. After three years of FirstEnergy collecting hundreds of millions via the “Distribution Modernization Rider,” a 2019 Ohio Supreme Court ruling blocked the company from continuing to apply […]
Dark money group with Mandel ties named in subpoena in FirstEnergy bribery lawsuit
A former FirstEnergy executive, defending himself in a shareholders’ lawsuit stemming from his alleged role in the company’s statehouse bribery operation, has subpoenaed correspondence with two political operatives with close ties to U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel. Attorneys for Mike Dowling, former senior vice president of external affairs for the utility company, subpoenaed records from […]
Ohio utility regulator lobbied for legislation to save FirstEnergy millions, texts show
Ohio’s top utility regulator quietly lobbied lawmakers to include a provision in the state budget that saved tens of millions for FirstEnergy Corp., text messages from company executives show. FirstEnergy admitted in federal court earlier this year that it funded $60 million to a political nonprofit that wasn’t required to disclose its donors, secretly controlled […]