Ex-FirstEnergy CEO and two others face charges in bribery scandal

Two former FirstEnergy executives and a former state utility commissioner have been indicted in a multimillion-dollar public corruption scandal, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said Monday.

Charles Jones, CEO of FirstEnergy from 2015 to 2020, and Michael Dowling, the company's former vice president of external affairs, are accused of paying Samuel Randazzo, former chairman of the Ohio Public Utilities Commission, more than $4.3 million to the company to, among other things, overcharge customers.

Together, the three men are accused of 27 counts, including theft, bribery and fraud. The suit was filed Friday but was not made public until Mr. Yost announced them on Monday.

The charges are the first against FirstEnergy executives in perhaps the largest public corruption scandal in Ohio history, one that has already landed a former lawmaker in prison. State and federal officials have accused the company, an Ohio-based electric utility that serves 6 million customers, of paying state lawmakers and regulators millions of dollars in exchange for subsidies and other favorable treatment.

Mr. Randazzo, chairman of the utility committee from April 2019 to November 2020, is accused of taking bribes from FirstEnergy and then lobbying for the company. The indictment says he accepted the money as “consulting services” through two shell companies, Sustainability Funding Alliance of Ohio and IEU-Ohio Administration, also named in the indictment.

Federal prosecutors indicted Mr. Randazzo on parallel charges in December. He pleaded not guilty to these charges and is awaiting trial.

The scandal came to light in 2020 after federal officials arrested then-Ohio House Speaker Larry L. Householder. In March, Mr. Householder was convicted in federal court of accepting a $60 million bribe from FirstEnergy in exchange for passing House Bill 6, a $1.3 billion bailout package for two troubled nuclear power plants the company operates. Mr. Householder was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June.

A spokeswoman for FirstEnergy, Jennifer Young, said the company had cooperated with law enforcement. “Today, FirstEnergy is a different, stronger company with new leadership, a solid strategy and a best-in-class compliance program,” she said.