FirstEnergy's current CEO Steven Strah continues to be haunted by allegations that he signed checks to Generation Now, the dark money that plead guilty to racketeering in connection with the House Bill 6 bribery scheme in Ohio. FirstEnergy denies the allegations (thread) "According to the FBI Affidavit supporting the criminal complaint against [Larry] Householder... [Steven} Strah personally signed checks for payments into the illegal bribery scheme," a proposed complaint filed by a FirstEnergy shareholder in Aug. alleged documentcloud.org/documents/2227…

The Ohio Consumer Lending Association paid $40,000 to support United for Clean Power (yes, the same dark $ group behind this year's anti-Inflation Reduction Act ad campaign) in 2018, @jake_zuckerman reveals ohiocapitaljournal.com/2022/09/12/a-c… And yes, there's a FirstEnergy connection #IRA In 2018, the Ohio Consumer Lending Association was mad at a GOP state rep. for pushing legislation to reform the payday lending industry and protect consumers, so it secretly paid United for Clean Power for attack ads targeting that state rep.

FirstEnergy has a tolling agreement (when co-defendants in litigation agree not to sue each other for mutual beneficial reasons) w/former VP of external affairs Michael Dowling, who was fired in connection with the utility’s HB 6 bribery scheme in Ohio documentcloud.org/documents/2227… FirstEnergy revealed the tolling agreement in a filing seeking to prevent the appointment of a new lead plaintiff in a shareholder derivatives action re: the HB 6 bribery scheme documentcloud.org/documents/2227…

FirstEnergy has identified Cleveland-area businessman Tony George as "Individual B" in the Deferred Prosecution Agreement where the utility admitted it secretly paid $60~ million to influence now-indicted former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder documentcloud.org/documents/2215… FirstEnergy assistant controller Tracy Ashton first identified George as "Individual B" during a deposition in a shareholder lawsuit, a transcript of the deposition made public by @OCC4Consumers + others on Friday revealed. Find the full transcript here: dis.puc.state.oh.us/DocumentRecord…

Nineteen years ago today, FirstEnergy’s failures caused the devastating August 14, 2003 blackout energy.gov/sites/default/… FirstEnergy caused the 2003 blackout not long after it misled the NRC about safety conditions at the Davis-Besse nuclear plant in Ohio, as a DOJ investigation later concluded justice.gov/archive/opa/pr…

A preliminary settlement between FirstEnergy and Ohio ratepayers who filed a RICO lawsuit re: the multi-million House Bill 6 bribery scheme quietly grew from $37.5 million to $49 million when Energy Harbor joined the settlement last month
documentcloud.org/documents/2210… The $11.5 settlement Energy Harbor, formerly FirstEnergy Solutions, reached with the ratepayer plaintiffs may be the first time the former FirstEnergy has paid a price for its role in the HB 6 bribery scheme.

FirstEnergy’s lawyers marked as “Confidential” 470,000 out of the 470,000 records from securities litigation the company turned over to Ohio Consumers Counsel as part of a public investigation of the multi-million House Bill 6 bribery scheme dis.puc.state.oh.us/DocumentRecord… In response, the Ohio Consumers Counsel pointed out that some of the records FirstEnergy marked as “Confidential” are already in the public domain

As of March, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio had yet to complete production of records subpoenaed last year by the U.S. Department of Justice, @PUCOhio Deputy Legal Director said in a letter re: a related Open Records Law request. The PUCO received the DOJ subpoenas in April and May of last year, so has had ample time to review the records, and produce them to DOJ and to public records requesters cleveland.com/open/2021/08/f…

Will #FERC follow up on its damning FirstEnergy audit by exercising its authority to assess fines of up to $1 million per day? $FE

https://twitter.com/cleantechfacts/status/1489629909148475405

FERC's power to assess fines of up to $1 million a day is stated in the instructions for completing Form 1 documentcloud.org/documents/7214… the reporting form where FirstEnergy "improperly" reported lobbying expenses, which resulted in misuse of ratepayer money documentcloud.org/documents/2119…

2004: FirstEnergy publicly disclosed a $500K payment to IEU-Ohio, an org affiliated with future PUCO chairman Samuel Randazzo, in an annual report filed with the SEC, as was required at the time under the PUHCA energyandpolicy.org/firstenergy-se… Congress repealed parts of PUHCA after 2004, and transparency faded. The money trail between FirstEnergy and Randazzo went dark for years, as Randazzo served on the PUCO Nominating Council and then as PUCO chairman energyandpolicy.org/firstenergy-se…

A key takeaway from FERC audit of FirstEnergy: What started off as a "$60 million bribery scandal" is now more like a $133 million scandal. Let's breakdown the money in a thread. FERC's audit team initially found FirstEnergy improperly included $10.9 million spent on lobbying in accounts reserved for expenses that are "presumptively recoverable" from ratepayers documentcloud.org/documents/2103…

A federal court ruling broadened the definition of political spending that must be excluded from utility rates, says @OCC4Consumers, with potentially big implications for PUCO’s investigation into FirstEnergy’s misuse of ratepayer $ to support #HB6 dis.puc.state.oh.us/DocumentRecord… The court ruling could also raise new questions about $137 million in external affairs costs that FirstEnergy included in “above-the-line” accounts that #FERC reserves for utility operating expenses that are “presumptively recoverable” from ratepayers energyandpolicy.org/firstenergy-se…