COLUMBUS – Ohio’s Republican Attorney General asked a federal court Monday to temporarily halt payouts in a bankruptcy case involving two nuclear plants caught up in a $60 million bribery and corruption probe.
Meanwhile, two Statehouse Democrats have introduced a bill that would make it hard for politicians in Ohio who are indicted for corruption to collect their paychecks or keep their jobs.
Attorney General Dave Yost said the arrests of then-House Speaker Larry Householder and four associates in an alleged pay-to-play scheme surrounding a nuclear bailout bill raises concerns that plant operator Energy Harbor “may not have entered into the bankruptcy with clean hands.”
Separately, FirstEnergy, the plant operator’s former parent, made clear it is the government’s “Company A.” Its quarterly report warned it can’t predict the probe’s financial impacts on its business.
Democratic state representatives Jeffrey , of Parma, and Gil Blair, of Weathersfield, Tuesday introduced a bill that would require state lawmakers to reimburse the state for any compensation received following a conviction for public corruption felonies and would prohibit anyone elected while under felony indictment for public corruption from taking their seat in the legislature.
Their Public Corruption Restitution Act would also prevent an elected legislator from being sworn in if they are currently under indictment and the criminal case is unresolved.
The bill would require the elected member to give up the seat and would require another member appointed if the elected candidate cannot be sworn into their seat within three months.