COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) – Lawyers are asking for final approval of a $180 settlement over a $60 million bribery scandal at FirstEnergy.
Ohio federal judge Algenon Marbley on May 9 gave preliminary approval to the settlement brought forward in March by lawyers at Bernstein Litowitz and Saxena White who are asking for up to $48.6 million in fees.
A July 7 motion asks Judge Marbley to give his final approval to the deal, which will be paid by the company’s insurers.
FirstEnergy has already entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with criminal prosecutors and paid a $230 million penalty. The derivative settlement says insurers will pay $180 million to the company, while requiring six defendants to leave the board of directors. It also adds new duties for the new board like "actively" overseeing spending and lobbying activities.
FirstEnergy was accused of sending $60 million to then-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder in exchange for legislation that would bail out the company’s failing nuclear power plants.
Litigation followed the FBI’s complaint against Householder and two FirstEnergy lobbyists.
Householder has pleaded not guilty to the alleged bribery scheme. 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.
No shareholder filed any objection after the settlement gained preliminary approval.