UNITED STATES — Ohio's former House Speaker, Larry Householder, has been sentenced to two decades behind bars for his involvement in a $60 million bribery scheme. Householder and former Ohio Republican Party chair, Mathew Borges, were convicted by a federal jury in March for receiving industry funds to lobby for a bill that aimed to bail out Ohio's nuclear power plants. The prosecution claims that the bribery case is Ohio's largest corruption case, even though the legislature revoked the bill in 2021.
Householder was arrested in 2020 and was removed from his position as Speaker by the Ohio House of Representatives following his arrest. During the trial, prosecutors revealed that energy distributor FirstEnergy provided $60 million to Generation Now, a nonprofit controlled by Householder, which was used for lobbying efforts to secure the passage of the $1.5 billion bill in 2019.
Both Householder and Borges were found guilty of participating in a racketeering conspiracy, while Borges is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday. The corruption case grabbed national headlines as it involved prominent Ohio politicians, and Householder received one of the longest prison sentences ever imposed on a public official found guilty of corruption.
In connection with the case, FirstEnergy agreed to pay $230 million to settle charges brought by the U.S. government this year and admitted to making payments to state officials to advance legislation on nuclear subsidies and other policies that would benefit the company. The payment is among the largest ever levied on a public utility company and demonstrates the government's seriousness in rooting out corruption at the highest levels.
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