A federal judge said he is concerned that FirstEnergy may have obstructed justice in an ongoing bribery investigation by filing a separate lawsuit against a whistleblower who raised issues about the company’s compliance with federal corporate accountability law.
While the U.S. Court for the Northern District of Ohio “expresses no opinion” on the ongoing investigation into an alleged 2020 bribery scheme involving FirstEnergy and some Ohio state politicians, it has “a grave concern” that the utility and Clearsulting — a management consulting firm once contracted by FirstEnergy — sued former Clearsulting employee Michael Pircio “to obstruct justice, engage in witness tampering, or otherwise interfere with ongoing civil and criminal investigations,” Judge Philip Calabrese wrote in an April 23 opinion in the companies’ suit against Pircio.
“One may fairly view the filing of this lawsuit itself as a strong message to Mr. Pircio and others who might cooperate in any way with the ongoing investigations implicating FirstEnergy,” Calabrese wrote. “Indeed, it is difficult to see it any other way.”
FirstEnergy and Clearsulting sued Pircio in September over 57 documents he shared with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Pircio said he transferred the documents because of his concern, based on previous experience, the utility company may have violated federal law with an “inappropriately limited” 2019 audit.
Pircio downloaded the documents from his former employer after he was fired from Clearsulting. The companies alleged Pircio was divulging trade secrets and confidential information.
Although Calabrese raised concerns in his opinion about the possible motivation behind the companies’ suit, he said that the ongoing bribery investigation against former Ohio state Speaker of the House Larry Householder “provide[s] a better vehicle to remedy any improper conduct.”
The Ohio attorney general’s office, which is heading up one of sixteen lawsuits against Householder, didn’t respond to a request for comment by deadline Friday for RadWaste Monitor as to whether they were looking into Calabrese’s concern.
FirstEnergy hasn’t yet been charged in the case over an alleged 2020 scheme that sought to funnel and launder $60 million to state politicians from the utility company in order to secure passage of state legislation to bail out two struggling nuclear power plants operated by what is now a former FirstEnergy subsidiary.
The company said April 22 that it was discussing a potential “deferred prosecution agreement” with the U.S. attorney’s office over the scandal.
