DAYTON, Ohio (Legal Newsline) – St. Louis’ public employee retirement system has filed a lawsuit over a bribery scandal at FirstEnergy.
The Employees Retirement System of the City of St. Louis filed its case in Ohio federal court on Sept. 9, derivatively on behalf of the company. It names many of the company’s officers who were the subject of a recently filed indictment.
“Defendants in this action orchestrated a massive, years-long bribery, racketeering and pay-to-play scheme in which FirstEnergy illegally funneled over $60 million to the Ohio Speaker of the House, Larry Householder, and other public officials in exchange for favorable legislation…” the suit says.
Householder recently pleaded not guilty to the alleged scheme, which includes favorable treatment for two nuclear plants.
“Defendants’ misconduct began in late 2016,” the suit says. “At that time, FirstEnergy had been struggling mightily for years, forced to sink hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain aging nuclear power plants in Ohio that had become financially unsustainable, while the demand for nuclear energy diminished and the costs of maintenance increased.”
St. Louis hired Strauss Troy of Cincinnati and Saxena White of Florida to file the case.