The settlement, set at just $20 million, represents less than a third of the bribes paid by Akron-based FirstEnergy. It’s a small amount compared to the benefits Ohio utilities have reaped from Ohioans due to the corrupt legislation those bribes supported.
Despite regularly issuing press releases, Yost’s office did not announce Monday’s settlement, which was first reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer through an SEC filing by FirstEnergy.
In response to inquiries, Yost’s office stated that he had “voluntarily walled himself off from the case months ago to avoid any suggestion that the case was politically driven or influenced by political decision-making.” However, they did not elaborate on how this was done.
This statement follows over a year of questions about Yost’s involvement in the effort to pass and protect the $1.3 billion ratepayer bailout that primarily benefited FirstEnergy.
Yost’s office also mentioned that the company is cooperating in state prosecutions of two former executives and has undergone reforms since the scandal.
“The non-prosecution agreement signed between FirstEnergy, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, and the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office requires FirstEnergy to provide evidence, witness access, and testimony in the ongoing criminal cases against (former CEO) Chuck Jones and (former Vice President) Michael Dowling, as well as in civil proceedings related to the passage of the corrupt bailout bill,” spokesman Steve Irwin said in an email.
By agreeing to the deal, FirstEnergy avoids criminal charges. In 2021, the company paid $230 million to the federal government to have criminal charges dropped.
By dropping the charges, both state and federal governments allowed FirstEnergy to avoid a significant financial penalty. Consultants had warned the company it could face nearly $4 billion in fines if indicted, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Testimonies from federal court in Cincinnati last year revealed that FirstEnergy executives began courting Larry Householder and other state leaders in late 2016. The executives, having heavily invested in coal and nuclear generation that was losing money, sought a bailout as they struggled to compete with the cheaper gas-fired electricity made possible by the fracking boom.
To secure the bailout, CEO Jones and Vice President Dowling funneled $61 million in corporate funds into 501(c)(4) dark money groups. This money was used to elect Republicans who would vote to make Householder speaker of the Ohio House in 2019.
From that position, Householder pushed through the corrupt bailout, House Bill 6.
Sam Randazzo, Governor Mike DeWine’s pick to chair the Public Utilities Commission, helped draft and lobby for the bailout despite being expected to act as a neutral regulator. FirstEnergy later admitted to paying Randazzo a $4.3 million bribe; he died by suicide in April.
DeWine, whose administration included several officials connected to FirstEnergy, signed the bill the same day it passed. However, the bill immediately faced fierce opposition and a campaign to repeal it began.
The FirstEnergy executives, now facing state indictments, were so alarmed by the repeal effort that they spent $36 million to stop it. The campaign against the repeal included false, xenophobic TV ads, harassment of petition gatherers, and even allegations of assault.
Yost played a significant role in aiding HB 6 supporters during the repeal fight.
Before the repeal could be placed on the ballot, supporters needed to gather 1,000 valid signatures and submit a ballot summary to the attorney general. Yost had to approve this before they could collect the additional 265,000 voter signatures required. With only 90 days to do so after DeWine signed the bailout on July 23, 2019, time was critical.
The summary and 1,000 signatures were submitted within 10 days, but Yost initially rejected the ballot language. By the time new language and signatures were submitted and approved, the time to gather signatures had been cut by 40%, and the repeal effort failed.
While Yost, a likely candidate for governor in 2026, has not commented on his actions during this period, some conspirators have.
During last year’s trial, federal prosecutors presented messages between former Ohio GOP Chairman Matt Borges, now serving a five-year sentence for his role in the scandal, and Juan Cespedes, who has pleaded guilty.
In one message, Borges claimed Yost privately criticized the bailout but refrained from speaking out publicly as a favor to Borges and FirstEnergy. Borges quoted Yost as saying he “‘would be out front (in opposition) if not for (FirstEnergy) support and your involvement.’”
In another message, Borges, who had managed some of Yost’s past campaigns, said of the repeal summary, “If there’s any way the law will allow him to reject the language, he will do it.”
Irwin, Yost’s spokesman, defended the settlement, stating that FirstEnergy has reformed.
“FirstEnergy today is not the company it was five years ago – the corporation has undertaken, and continues to undergo, reforms to strengthen its internal ethics programs, increase transparency, and promote the reporting of questionable conduct by its employees and leadership,” Irwin said. “It has also restructured its board and leadership to remove those responsible for the House Bill 6 scandal. This is an important step in holding the disgraced corporate leaders who betrayed FirstEnergy’s ratepayers, employees, and the people of Ohio accountable for their crimes.”
However, institutional investors are arguing in court that FirstEnergy is trying to limit the fallout from the scandal. They accuse the company of protecting other executives and board members who may have been involved or were aware of the scheme.
The company is currently fighting hard not to release an internal investigation it commissioned after the scandal. After being denied an appeal to withhold the report, the company filed a risky petition for a writ of mandamus on July 30.
Following the HB 6 scandal’s exposure in 2020, Yost donated $24,000 in contributions from FirstEnergy and Cespedes to charity. It remains unclear when he will fully explain his knowledge and actions in a scandal that led to Householder’s 20-year prison sentence and two suicides, including that of indicted lobbyist Neil Clark.
Meanwhile, Ohio ratepayers continue to bear significant costs due to HB 6. While provisions benefiting FirstEnergy were repealed after the scandal, state leaders have refused to repeal the rest of the bill.
This includes a measure that has so far paid $343 million to subsidize two aging coal plants owned by a group of Ohio utilities, one of which isn’t even in Ohio.