The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
Randazzo, Jones and Dowling haven’t been charged in the scandal, but after a jury trial that convicted two others, two guilty pleas, and a suicide, the three men could be the next targets as federal authorities continue their probe. In a deferred prosecution agreement, FirstEnergy in 2021 agreed to pay $230 million and admitted wrongdoing, including by bribing Randazzo. But the class-action plaintiffs — large pension and investment funds — are arguing that the company violated securities law by not disclosing its corrupt conduct. And, they argue, the company lost much of its value when that conduct came to light, leaving investors holding the bag.
The “got it” was in response to a column of numbers Randazzo sent that appear to indicate that he was expecting payments from FirstEnergy through 2024:The following day, Jones, the CEO, told Randazzo that he wouldn’t have to wait that long for the money, according to the filings. Jones also made it clear that he expected access to Randazzo.
“This is awful,” he wrote. “The FirstEnergy Solutions bankruptcy filing names that group and Sam names the same group on a financial disclosure statement. Unreal. I don’t know why it was listed in the bankruptcy filing. The payments we made year-end ’18 came from Corp. Services.” In June, U.S. District Judge Timothy Black sentenced former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, to 20 years in prison for orchestrating the racketeering scandal. Former state GOP Chairman Matt Borges got five years for his role.