AKRON, Ohio -- Two former FirstEnergy executives' obsession with hiking stock prices and fattening their wallets led them to bribe a top state regulator who was supposed to protect customers, prosecutors said Tuesday during opening statements in a key bribery trial.
Former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones and top lobbyist Michael Dowling pulled off what some officials have called the largest bribery scheme in Ohio history in part by plying former Public Utilities of Ohio chairman Sam Randazzo with $4.3 million, Assistant Ohio Attorney General Matthew Meyer said.
Randazzo's rulings while heading up the state's utility regulator gave a windfall to FirstEnergy -- and to Jones and Dowling through soaring stocks, Meyer said.
"Ultimately it's about greed," Meyer said. "It's about corporate greed and about personal greed."
Defense attorneys shot back, saying FirstEnergy was legally obligated to make the payment under a 2015 settlement it negotiated with a group of businesses that Randazzo represented. They also portrayed Randazzo as a thief and a "conman" who stole the money instead of giving it to his clients.
"None of that money was intended for Sam Randazzo," Jones' defense attorney Carole Rendon said. "And if he had not stolen that money, none of us would be here today."
The six hours of opening statements kicked off the high-profile trial that's expected to last about two months.
The trial marks the second of three criminal cases tied to the passage of HB 6 and its fallout. The first trial ended in the 2023 conviction of former Ohio House speaker Larry Householder, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for accepting $60 million in bribes from FirstEnergy. The company itself in 2021 admitted to bribing both Randazzo and Householder.
Jones and Dowling face 11 charges, including racketeering, bribery and conspiracy.
Randazzo, featured heavily in both sides' opening statements, was initially charged in the case alongside Jones and Dowling, but died by suicide in April 2024. His company pleaded guilty to charges in the case after his death and agreed to pay $2.3 million in penalties and restitution.
The case revolves around the $4.3 million payment made in December 2018, after Jones and Dowling met with then-Gov.-elect Mike DeWine and former Lt. Gov. Jon Husted. Both DeWine and Husted are listed as potential defense witnesses.
Meyer said Jones and Dowling left the meeting believing that DeWine and Husted were going to pass on their preferred candidate for PUCO chairman, Jason Rafeld, and would instead appoint Randazzo. Jones and Dowling then went to Randazzo's condo and hatched the plan to bribe Randazzo, Meyer said.
In the ensuing months, Randazzo pushed for HB 6, scuttled a PUCO review of FirstEnergy that would have showed they were charging too much for electricity and ensured that the company made inflated profits.
"The backup for this case was a bribe," Meyer said. "They bought people. That's what the evidence will show. When they needed something from a person, they bought the person."
Jones' and Dowling's attorneys said the payment wasn't a bribe at all. Instead, they said the payment was linked to a 2015 contract that Randazzo negotiated while representing a group of businesses who fought FirstEnergy for lower electricity rates.
After FirstEnergy had a better-than-expected year in 2018, the company looked for ways to wipe out payments they had to make in future years to free up its budget, according to the defense.
The meeting at Randazzo's condo was about that, not bribing him, both Rendon and Dowling's defense attorney Steven Grimes told the jury. Both said the payment was vetted by FirstEnergy attorneys and paid through normal channels.
Though Jones and Dowling knew Randazzo for years, and were even friends, defense attorneys said the duo lobbied against Randazzo being appointed PUCO chairman. Grimes said Jones and Dowling kept pushing DeWine and Husted to appoint Rafeld even after the payment to Randazzo.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this would be the first time in human history that someone paid a bribe at 9 a.m. and undermined the person they were bribing to make sure they couldn't help them two hours later," Grimes said.