Feds lay out corrupt scheme in which they say FirstEnergy paid $4.3 million bribe to former top state regulator

Sam Randazzo

Sam Randazzo is former chairman of the PUCO, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. (Photo from Public Utilities Commission of Ohio)

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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- In new new court filings, FirstEnergy Corp. officials say that in exchange for a $4.3 million bribe, former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chairman Sam Randazzo helped them push for changes worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the Akron-based company after he became the state’s top public-utilities regulator.

In the filings, made Thursday as FirstEnergy entered into what amounts to a corporate plea deal with the federal government, the company said it negotiated the payment while coordinating its agenda with Randazzo in the days before and after Republican Gov. Mike DeWine hired him in February 2019 to run the PUCO.

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