Ohio Expands Suit in FirstEnergy Case to Include Former CEO (1)

Ohio’s attorney general has expanded a civil racketeering lawsuit filed against FirstEnergy Corp. to include the company’s ex-Chief Executive Officer Charles Jones as a defendant.

The suit accuses Jones and others of participating in an “unholy alliance” with lawmakers to pass a $1 billion bailout for nuclear power plants, according to a statement Thursday from Attorney General Dave Yost. It also names former FirstEnergy Senior Vice President Michael Dowling and ex-Public Utility Commission of Ohio Chairman Sam Randazzo as defendants.

FirstEnergy declined to comment on the suit. Jones, who was fired in October, didn’t immediately comment. The company’s shares fell as much as 2.1%.

The amended suit comes two weeks after FirstEnergy said it reached an agreement with federal prosecutors over a corruption case tied to the bailout. Under a deferred-prosecution agreement, the company admitted that it conspired with public officials and others to pay millions of dollars in bribes. FirstEnergy agreed to pay $230 million, the largest criminal penalty ever imposed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.

The suit accuses Randazzo and the FirstEnergy executives of engaging in “extortion, money laundering, coercion, intimidation and an attempted coverup by a politically-connected group trying to enrich themselves,” according to Yost’s statement.

It also seeks to recover “a $4.3 million bribe FirstEnergy admitted it paid to Randazzo to help construct” the nuclear-subsidy bill “while serving as FirstEnergy’s regulator.”

(Updates with FirstEnergy no-comment in 3rd paragraph)

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