In partnership with 3News, Cleveland.com recently uncovered filings showing the company secretly paid millions to groups supporting Gov. Mike DeWine.
CLEVELAND — Newly released documents from a lawsuit filed by FirstEnergy investors are shedding more light on the flow of money from the utility to Ohio’s politically powerful.
Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, already sentenced to 20 years in prison on federal bribery charges, is set to answer to state charges for accepting $60 million in kickbacks from FirstEnergy for the passage of the massive nuclear bailout known as House Bill 6. Householder’s state case will be heard in Cuyahoga County, since the alleged financial transactions happened in Cleveland.
At the center of the bribery scheme is the dark money group Partners for Progress, which FirstEnergy admits was created and funded to conceal the bribes. IRS filings show the group operated at the same address as Cleveland law firm Calfee, Halter & Griswold on East 6th Street downtown, and according to internal First Energy documents, Partners for Progress was run by …