Ohio utility at center of $60 million bribery case fires CEO

Ohio utility at center of $60 million bribery case fires CEO

SeattlePI.com

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TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — A power company under investigation for its role in an alleged $60 million bribery scheme involving one of Ohio’s most powerful politicians fired its chief executive following an internal review.

FirstEnergy Corp. said its investigation found that CEO Chuck Jones and two other company officials who were fired Thursday violated company policies and its code of conduct.

The company said its review was related to government investigations into the company, but it did not disclose any details about what it found.

The firings came just hours after two Ohio political operatives pleaded guilty to conspiring in a scheme aimed at bailing out two aging nuclear power plants that once were owned by FirstEnergy.

Up until now, FirstEnergy and its executives have denied any wrongdoing and they still have not been criminally charged. Federal investigators have said the company and its associates secretly funneled millions to secure a $1 billion legislative bailout for the two unprofitable Ohio nuclear plants, then operated by an independently controlled subsidiary called FirstEnergy Solutions.

Jones had long insisted that Akron-based FirstEnergy had no financial stake in rescuing the plants because they were operated by FirstEnergy Solutions. Yet nearly all of the money used to fund the scheme, authorities said, came from the corporation itself.

FirstEnergy, in a filing made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, said Jones and the other two executives have forfeited or are no longer eligible to receive awards from various incentive compensation plans.

A committee comprised of independent board members conducting an internal investigation into the company's role in the alleged bribery scheme said it is "considering whether recoupment,...

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