AKRON, Ohio— The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday sued former FirstEnergy Corp. CEO Chuck Jones and accused him of committing securities fraud in connection with the House Bill 6 bribery scandal that landed Ohio’s former House speaker in prison for two decades.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Akron, seeks a judge’s order to force Jones to pay back any money he earned from the scheme along with imposing unspecified civil penalties.
SEC attorneys wrote in the lawsuit that Jones received a $1.6 million bonus in 2019 and stock valued at $18.1 million around the time he and FirstEnergy bribed former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder with $60 million. The money went to pass legislation worth $1.3 billion to bail out two nuclear plants that were owned at the time by a FirstEnergy subsidiary.
Messages were left for one of Jones’ attorneys, Carole Rendon. A FirstEnergy spokeswoman did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
The lawsuit accuses Jones of lying to investors and the public regarding the bribe payments to Householder, which records show were made through dark-money channels that were shielded from the public for years.
Jones also misled FirstEnergy’s internal auditor when he failed to disclose the payments, according to the lawsuit. The SEC claims that Jones later told the auditor that he was unaware of FirstEnergy’s law-breaking and failed to come up with internal controls to prevent misconduct.
Jones, 68, was FirstEnergy’s CEO from 2015 until he was fired in 2020, just months after FBI agents arrested Householder and four others in connection with the scheme. Householder was sentenced to 20 years in prison and former FirstEnergy lobbyist Matt Borges was sentenced to five years in prison.
Three other were charged in the case. Two pleaded guilty and one, lobbyist Neil Clark, died by suicide.
Federal prosecutors also charged former Public Utilities Commission Chairman Sam Randazzo and secured a $230 million fine against FirstEnergy in a non-prosecution agreement. As part of that agreement, the Akron-based utility agreed to cooperate with investigators. Randazzo also died by suicide in April.
No federal charges have been filed against Jones, but Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s office has charged Jones and former FirstEnergy Vice President Michael Dowling with racketeering, conspiracy and bribery in connection with a $4.3 million payment made to Randazzo.
Jones has pleaded not guilty in the case in Summit County Common Pleas Court. That case is on-going.
FirstEnergy also agreed to pay $20 million in a non-prosecution agreement with Yost’s office.
The federal investigation into House Bill 6 spawned several lawsuits. The company said during a shareholders meeting in July it expected to pay about $100 million to settle claims in the SEC case.
Adam Ferrise covers federal courts at cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. You can find his work here.
