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FirstEnergy to pay $230M in agreement in Ohio bribery case



Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. must pay a $230 million penalty and fully cooperate with federal prosecutors as part of an agreement to avoid a federal conspiracy charge against the company in a sweeping bribery scheme in Ohio

CINCINNATI -- The energy giant at the center of a $60 million bribery scheme in Ohio admitted Thursday to new details of its role in the conspiracy as part of a deal with federal prosecutors, including how it used dark money groups to fund the effort and paid a soon-to-be top utility regulator to write the legislation it got in exchange.

Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud under the deferred prosecution agreement, Acting U.S. Attorney Vipal J. Patel and FBI Special Agent in Charge Chris Hoffman announced at a press conference.

The charge would be dropped if the company complies over three years with a list of required actions in the deal, including paying a $230 million criminal penalty and continuing to fully cooperate with investigators.

The deal, signed off by FirstEnergy's president and CEO, comes in a scandal that has affected business and politics across Ohio since the arrests a year ago of then-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four associates. Government officials say Householder orchestrated a plan to accept corporate money for personal and political use in exchange for passing nuclear bailout legislation and scuttling an effort to repeal the bill.

“I hope that today’s announcement serves as a stern warning to other corporations and corporate executives who would sell their integrity to a public official, a group of public officials,” said Hoffman, calling the probe a historic public corruption investigation that “deserves historic remedies.” pgslot

Patel called the $230 million penalty probably the largest ever secured by his office.

FirstEnergy is one of the largest investor-owned electric systems in the nation with an annual revenue last year of $10.8 billion. Patel rejected suggestions that the sum was too lenient.

“So the principal here is try and come up with a number that stings, okay, but doesn’t annihilate,” Patel said, asserting that decimating the company's finances would hurt employees and customers and diminish FirstEnergy's incentive to cooperate.

Half of the $230 million penalty will go to the federal government and the other half will be paid to a program that benefits Ohio’s regulated utility customers, Patel said. FirstEnergy also has to forfeit about $6 million seized from the accounts of one of the dark money groups, Partners for Progress.

Under the agreement, FirstEnergy also must make public any new corporate payments it’s aware of that were intended to influence a public official and continue an internal makeover of its ethics practices. It also must issue a public statement describing that it intentionally used dark money groups to hide the scheme.

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