Tag: FirstEnergy Corp.

FBI Shares Covert Recordings in Householder, Borges HB6 Racketeering Trial in Ohio

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by Robert Girard   FBI Agent Blane Wetzel testified in court again Monday providing further evidence in the ongoing racketeering trial against Larry Householder, former Ohio House Speaker, and Matt Borges, a lobbyist and former Ohio GOP chair. Both Householder and Borges have pleaded not guilty to charges in what prosecutors describe as a $61 million bribery scheme that – per U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio David DeVillers – is “likely the largest bribery–money laundering scheme ever perpetrated against the people of Ohio.” The accused, per a criminal complaint built off more than 250 subpoenas of bank, phone and text records, funneled millions from FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) and others to help influence the passing of, and afterward hinder the repeal of, Ohio House Bill 6 (HB6) – a contentious Ohio House Bill which included a $1.3 billion nuclear bailout passed by Ohio lawmakers in July, 2019. Under House Bill 6, a new monthly surcharge was added to bills of all Ohio electricity customers (from less than $1 for residential customers to $2000+ for large plants) from 2021 until 2027. Of the $170 million collected each year from the new surcharge, most all ($150 million) was to go to Akron-based FirstEnergy Solutions – a subsidiary of FirstEnergy…

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Renacci Launches Sixth Digital Attack Ad Against Ohio Governor DeWine as Broadcast Strategy Simmers

Brian Ball

GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci has launched his sixth digital campaign ad as advisers contemplate when to move the media strategy to television.

Renacci’s latest social media ad continues the campaign’s central theme of state government corruption as it focuses on the Sept. 24 resignation of Dan McCarthy, the legislative affairs director of incumbent Governor Mike DeWine who also will seek the Republican nomination in the May 3 primary.

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McCarthy Resignations Sparks Reaction from Committee for Better Ohio, DeWine Opponent Renacci

Brian Ball

A former lobbyist for the FirstEnergy Corp. electric utility at the center of an ongoing federal public corruption scandal has suddenly resigned his post as Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s director of legislative affairs.

Dan McCarthy, who has held the high-profile post since early 2019, submitted his letter of resignation on Sept. 24 effective immediately to the jeers of rival GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci and the Committee for a Better Ohio, a reform-minded conservative grassroots education organization..

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Renacci Calls for Full Investigation of All Sources of FirstEnergy Contributions to DeWine Campaign, Including Ohio Republican Party

Brian Ball

  MEDINA, Ohio – Republican gubernatorial challenger Jim Renacci has asked for a full investigation of the flow of FirstEnergy Corp.’s political contributions into the 2018 campaign of Governor Mike DeWine (R-OH) in the wake of the Akron-based electric utility’s $230 million settlement of public bribery charges with the Department of Justice last week. That probe, he said, should include a full investigation of the financial records of the Ohio Republican Party. Renacci held a press conference early Tuesday afternoon on the public square in Medina to call for DeWine to fully disclose any direct and indirect contributions made to his campaign by FirstEnergy as part of the electric utility’s bid to get the House Bill 6 legislation DeWine signed two years ago. That legislation, now mostly rescinded, would have charged electric utility customers statewide for the upkeep of the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear power plants along the Lake Erie shoreline owned by a former FirstEnergy subsidiary. Renacci charged DeWine’s campaign coffers may have benefitted as much as $5 million from FirstEnergy, which was named as the central player in the $60 million bribery case still under investigation. “DeWine has contributed to a culture of corruption where sweetheart deals and…

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