Attorneys delivered their opening statements in the trial of two former FirstEnergy executives in Summit County Common Pleas Court in Akron Tuesday.
The two are facing state charges related to the $60 million bribery scandal that involved their company, the Republican former Ohio House speaker and the former chair of the Ohio Republican Party. It's considered the largest corruption scandal in state history.
The prosecution said former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones and former FirstEnergy Senior Vice President Michael Dowling bribed the state’s top utility regulator Sam Randazzo before the introduction of a billion-dollar bailout of the company’s nuclear power plants. But the former execs’ lawyers say Randazzo was the criminal, not their clients.
LISTEN: The Power Grab Podcast
Assistant Ohio Attorney General Matt Meyer told the jury Dowling and Jones wanted lawmakers to pass House Bill 6, the energy measure signed in July 2019, which provided a billion dollars in subsidies over a decade for Ohio's two nuclear power plants, owned by a FirstEnergy subsidiary.
But he said they paid Randazzo $4.3 million as he became chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio in early 2019 as an "insurance policy" to ensure FirstEnergy’s stock price went up following regulatory actions.
“The backup plan in this case was a bribe. So Plan B was 'Plan Bribe'. They bought people," Meyer said. "Chuck Jones and Mike Dowling went to Mr. Randazzo repeatedly, secretly, and they rigged the game."
Lawyers for Dowling and Jones said they didn’t want Randazzo as PUCO chair, and instead were hoping for Columbus attorney Jason Rafeld. They said their clients were paying Randazzo as part of a settlement agreement with clients he represented through Industrial Energy Users-Ohio.
"Sam Randazzo, unbeknownst to everybody, turned out to be a thief," said Steven Grimes, who's representing Dowling. "He lied to a lot of people and he stole from his clients. And no one that knew Sam well and certainly no one at FirstEnergy knew that."
"They knew he might go on to the PUCO and no one was worried. Why not? Because it was a settlement for his clients. It was not for Sam Randazzo," said Jones' lawyer Carole Rendon about the payment. “None of that money was intended for Sam Randazzo. It was for his clients and he stole it."
Randazzo was charged along with Jones and Dowling but died by suicide in 2024. Jones and Dowling are also facing federal racketeering charges.
Former House speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio GOP chair Matt Borges were convicted on similar charges in federal court in 2023 in connection with pushing HB 6 through the legislature. Householder, who's in prison on a 20-year sentence, is also facing state charges of misuse of campaign money and ethics violations.
FirstEnergy struck a plea deal on federal charges in 2021, paying $230 million in that agreement. In 2022, the company settled a lawsuit with shareholders for $180 million.
In 2024, FirstEnergy agreed to a $20 million deal to settle the state's criminal investigation of the company. In November the utility was ordered by the PUCO to pay a $250 million penalty to Ohio customers.
The trial is expected to last two months. The Summit County courthouse is about a half a mile from where FirstEnergy's headquarters used to be located on South Main Street.
