FirstEnergy in talks on deferred prosecution agreement

CLEVELAND (AP) — FirstEnergy Corp. is cooperating with the U.S. Department of Justice while negotiating a deferred prosecution agreement over its role in secretly funding a $60 million bribery scheme to secure a $1 billion bailout for two Ohio nuclear power plants, company officials said Friday during an earnings call.

Such an agreement generally involves requiring a company to admit to wrongdoing, agree to initiate reforms, cooperate with prosecutors, pay a fine and promise not to commit additional crimes.

“We're going to deal with and fully cooperate with the DOJ,” FirstEnergy President and CEO Steven Strah said. “The resolution discussion we spoke of today are constructive and are a positive development for our company.”

Akron-based FirstEnergy has been accused of spending millions to win a $1 billion legislative bailout for two Ohio nuclear plants, which were operated by a wholly-owned company subsidiary when the bill passed in July 2019.

A new independent company called Energy Harbor took ownership of the plants and other FirstEnergy assets in February 2020. Officials said earlier this year it no longer wanted the bailout money, and the Legislature approved a bill to repeal the bailout in late March.

FirstEnergy officials provided no timeline for when an agreement might be reached but acknowledged the company expects to incur a loss after that happens. FirstEnergy first disclosed the negotiations in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday.

Chicago-based Commonwealth Edison agreed as part of a deferred prosecution agreement last July to pay a $200 million fine for its role in a bribery scheme involving then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

The electric utility acknowledged bribing Madigan with jobs for political allies and...