COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) - A man accused of accepting a multimillion-dollar bribe from FirstEnergy in a scheme that also sent the former speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives to jail may face the seizure of $8 million after the Ohio Supreme Court reversed an appellate ruling striking down a court order attaching his assets.
Ohio moved to attach Samuel Randazzo’s assets after receiving evidence he had wired millions of dollars to an out-of-state law firm, sold $4 million in Florida real estate and transferred ownership of a $500,000 house to his son for $0. Randazzo is accused of accepting a $4.3 million bribe from FirstEnergy in exchange for help with state utility regulators.
A trial judge granted the state’s motion in an ex parte ruling, or without consulting Randazzo or his lawyers. After Randazzo protested, the trial court granted him a hearing on the attachment order as required by law.
An appeals court reversed the attachment order, however, finding the trial judge had improperly found the state would suffer “irreparable injury” if Randazzo’s assets weren’t seized before he was granted a hearing.
The state appealed and the Ohio Supreme Court reinstated the freeze on Randazzo’s assets in a Jan. 16 order. While state law gave Randazzo the right to a hearing, the Supreme Court said, the appeals court was wrong to rule his rights had been violated because the judge ruled before the hearing was held.
"The hearing was not to decide if the special requirements for an ex parte order were met,” the court ruled. “That ship had sailed.”
Ohio sought to attach $8 million in assets because Randazzo faces the potential of treble damages. He owns Sustainability Funding Alliance of Ohio, which received millions from FirstEnergy shortly before Randazzo took a position on the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
Larry Householder, the former Ohio speaker of the House, was found guilty of public corruption in March along with the former chair of the Ohio Republican Party, Mathew Borges. They were accused of accepting tens of millions of dollars from FirstEnergy into Householder’s PAC, Generation Now, in exchange for Householder’s help in passing a $1.3 billion taxpayer-funded bailout of the utility.