Fired utility executives indicted in $60 million Ohio bribery scheme, fail to surrender
ABC News
Two former FirstEnergy Corp. executives have been indicted in connection with a $60 million bribery scheme in Ohio
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Two former top executives of FirstEnergy Corp. were indicted Monday in a $60 million bribery scheme in Ohio related to a legislative bailout for two Ohio nuclear power plants that has already resulted in a 20-year prison sentence for a former state House speaker.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced in an online news conference that former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones and Senior Vice President Michael Dowling were charged in relation to their role in the massive corruption case. They were fired in October 2020 for violating company policies and code of conduct.
After a Summit County grand jury indicted Jones and Dowling on Friday, Yost said, the two men promised to turn themselves in Monday to the Summit County Jail. They did not keep that promise, and Yost said he anticipates the they will be taken into custody sometime later Monday.
Sam Randazzo, former chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, is already facing 11 counts of charges centered around allegations that he accepted bribes from Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. in exchange for regulatory favors. He resigned in November 2020 after FBI agents searched his Columbus townhome and FirstEnergy revealed in security filings that it had paid him $4.3 million for his future help at the commission a month before Republican Gov. Mike DeWine nominated him as Ohio’s top utility regulator.
The state has charged Jones, Dowling and Randazzo with a combined total of 27 counts of criminal charges in relation to the massive corruption case, including bribery, theft, engaging in corrupt activity, tampering with records and money laundering.
