COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) – Lawyers representing a St. Louis union will get their wish to lead litigation against FirstEnergy over an alleged $60 million bribe to a prominent Ohio legislator.
Ohio federal judge Algenon Marbley picked the law firms Saxena White and Bernstein Litowitz to lead consolidated lawsuits against FirstEnergy leadership after other plaintiffs showed their support for them.
The decision boxes out firms that sued on behalf of a Philadelphia public pension – Berger Montague and O’Connor, Haseley & Wilhelm.
“This Court takes seriously concerns about the potential for inefficient litigation and confusion but finds that they are not warranted in this case,” Marbley wrote.
“Saxena White and Bernstein Litowitz have worked together to litigate shareholder derivative actions as co-lead counsel on at least three occasions and have achieved favorable results in each…
“(T)his Court is confident that the two firms will be able to speak with one voice and coordinate appropriately to streamline procedure and avoid unnecessary expense.”
Litigation followed the FBI’s July complaint against Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and two First Energy lobbyists.
Householder has pleaded not guilty to the alleged bribery scheme, which involved $60 million in payments.
It started in 2016, when FirstEnergy told investors it was seeking “legislative solutions” to the financial problems at two of its aging nuclear plants in Northern Ohio.
Householder was running for a House seat he previously held. He resigned in 2004 after bribery allegations arose. But his district’s voters picked him to retake the seat and he took office in 2017.
FirstEnergy flew Householder to D.C. for the presidential inauguration and allegedly began making quarterly payments of $250,000 to Householder’s PAC, Generation Now.
FirstEnergy and its subsidiaries put tens of millions of dollars into entities controlled by Generation Now as Householder mounted a campaign to be named House Speaker, it is alleged.
Once speaker, Householder helped HB6 get passed, which charged ratepayers a monthly surcharge. It was essentially a $1.3 billion bailout.
The FBI called it a “sophisticated criminal conspiracy to enact legislation.” Voters were given a ballot initiative to overturn the bailout, and First Energy spent $38 million to defeat it.
Once the FBI filed its criminal complaint, plaintiffs lawyers started filing derivative actions – suing the company’s leadership on behalf of the company itself. The Philadelphia pension said it lost about $378,000 on its investment in the company.