AKRON, Ohio – As federal prosecutors announced charges Tuesday against Ohio Speaker of the House of Representatives Larry Householder and others, accusing them of accepting more than $ 60 million in bribes from FirstEnergy Corp., a name was notably absent from the indictment: FirstEnergy.
The federal criminal lawsuit doesn’t even mention the name of Akron-based FirstEnergy, but refers to “Company A” as the corporation that funded the conspiracy to secure a $ 1.3 billion public bailout for two Ohio nuclear power plants. owned by FirstEnergy Solutions, now Energy Puerto.
“Everyone in this room knows who Company A is,” David DeVillers, US Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, said Tuesday during a press conference. “I will not mention the name of Company A due to our regulations and rules. They have not, and no one from that company has yet been charged, so I will refer to this as Company A. “
The defendants include Householder, former Ohio Republican Party president-turned-lobbyist Matt Borges, prominent Columbus lobbyist Neil Clark, assistant head of household Jeff Longstrenth, Columbus lobbyist Juan Céspedes, and the Generation Now group. .
But could FirstEnergy, or someone in your corporate leadership, be ultimately charged? Are charges coming?
When asked that question Tuesday, DeVillers replied, “We are going to continue to investigate this, and we are going to investigate wherever it leads.”
DeVillers said there is a “strong inference” in the complaint that Householder and its allies approached FirstEnergy, rather than the other way around.
“This company went looking for someone to bribe them,” said DeVillers.
In a statement, FirstEnergy said: “This afternoon, FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) received subpoenas regarding the Ohio House Bill 6 investigation. We are reviewing the details of the investigation and intend to cooperate fully.” A company spokeswoman declined to comment beyond the statement.
House Bill 6 is the $ 1.3 billion bailout for taxpayers of two Ohio nuclear power plants owned by FirstEnergy Solutions, now Energy Harbor. The head of the family helped propel HB6 through the state legislature last year.
Michael Benza, a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, does not have special knowledge of this case, but offered some reasons why prosecutors may not have charged “Company A” at this time. He expects prosecutors to announce more charges.
“In the federal system, once formal charges are filed, the prosecution has a very limited capacity to negotiate plea agreements and dismiss the charges,” Benza told cleveland.com. “They may be holding charges against what appear to be possible obvious defendants because they may want to develop a process whereby they resort to information, rather than prosecution. … That’s basically the guilt negotiation system in federal prosecution. “
It is possible, Benza said, that the United States Attorney’s Office is working on a plea bargain with “Company A” rather than charging them up front.
“They do this a lot, in this type of research,” Benza said. “They go to the person and say, ‘Here is all the information we have, and here are all the charges that we will bring, and he will spend a million years in prison unless he agrees to cooperate and plead guilty to this.'”
Another explanation for why “Company A” has not been charged may have to do with the investigation.
During his press conference, DeVillers said his office was unable to subpoena some people because he would have disclosed the existence of the investigation before the government was ready to make it public. Those people can now be cited, he said.
“Reaching the financial records of Company A or Generation Now would have alerted people that the investigation was underway,” said Benza. “They may not have wanted people to know about it until they have done a significant amount of their research. Now that it’s public, issuing citations reveals nothing about the investigation. “
People with a minor stake in the operation may be willing to help investigators avoid public prosecution, he said.
“One of the things that will happen due to the high-profile nature of the accused in this circumstance is that the people who are in the conspiracy may be willing to cooperate and go through information or other process to avoid being charged and tried with the other defendants. “
