A three-judge panel on the 10th District Court of Appeals ruled today that a Columbus judge improperly froze $8 million of assets of Sam Randazzo.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sought the freeze last year after Randazzo, the former chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, transferred a home worth $500,000 to his son and sold properties worth a combined $4.8 million.
Randazzo is a defendant in a racketeering lawsuit filed by the state, Columbus and Cincinnati.
The former PUCO leader has not been charged but FirstEnergy has admitted to bribing him as part of a nuclear power plant bailout scandal that has rocked the Statehouse in July 2020.
FirstEnergy said it paid a bribe of $4.3 million dollars to Sam Randazzo before he became chair of the PUCO in February 2019. The nuclear bailout was signed into law later that year.
In August 2021, Yost amended his civil suit filed against FirstEnergy and former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder to include Randazzo and former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones.
