COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline - The Ohio lawmaker at the center of a bribery scheme involving nuclear plants owned by FirstEnergy has been found guilty of public corruption.
Larry Householder faces up to 20 years in prison. He's a former speaker of the state's House of Representatives who was alleged to habe received $60 million from the company in exchange for legislation that would bail out the company's failing nuclear plants.
In addition to the criminal charges, civil litigation followed. Lawyers representing parties suing on behalf of the company took $36 million from a $180 settlement funded by the company's insurers.
Also convicted on March 9 in Cincinnati federal court was the former chair of the Ohio Republican Party, Mathew Borges.
“As presented by the trial team, Larry Householder illegally sold the statehouse, and thus he ultimately betrayed the great people of Ohio he was elected to serve,” U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker.
The DOJ showed Householder spent some of the money to pay off his credit cards, repair his Florida home and settle a lawsuit.
Householder 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 had 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 was 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.