By John Stang
A high-ranking Ohio official already indicted for corruption related to struggling nuclear reactors was involved in similar schemes in the Buckeye State, according to court documents filed Friday by the offices of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Summit County Prosecutor Elliot Kolkovich.
Sam Randazzo, the already-indicted former head of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, faces 22 charges relating to his relations with Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp., the former owner of the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station and Perry Nuclear Power Plant.
Former FirstEnergy CEO Charles “Chuck” Jones and lobbyist Michael Dowling face similar charges in Summit County Common Pleas Court, where Akron is located. All three pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors now allege that the three were involved in plans similar to the pay-to-play scheme that resulted in the dramatic ouster of the former Speaker of the Ohio House House of Representatives, who in 2019 arranged a state bailout for the struggling plants after receiving bribes arranged by FirstEnergy and friendly intermediaries.
One earlier scheme, prosecutors said, involved a 2008 lawsuit by several large Ohio electric customers against North Carolina-based Duke Energy. That lawsuit alleged that two members of the Industrial Energy Users of Ohio (IEU-Ohio) trade group, then legally represented by Randazzo, benefited from a secret side deal.
Randazzo successfully lobbied PUCO, which at the time he did not belong to, to hide those deals from public scrutiny, according to Friday’s filing.
Another scheme began in 2010 when IEU-Ohio protested that its members were paying too much to FirstEnergy. Randazzo transferred IEU-Ohio’s rights in this case to two of his shell companies, telling IEU-Ohio that this was a requirement by FirstEnergy to refund some of the customers’ money, according to Friday’s filing.
IEU-Ohio did not know that Randazzo was also a hired consultant for First Energy.
“Years later, some of the money would make its way to IEU-Ohio. Some of it would end up in Randazzo’s pocket. Randazzo worked in the background with First Energy through the decade, receiving millions of dollars for ‘consulting services,’” Friday’s filing said.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) appointed Randazzo to PUCO in 2019, and Randazzo resigned under pressure in 2020 due to the scandal that led to his indictment.
