HBO interviewing the key players in Householder-Borges corruption case

The downfall of now imprisoned ex-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder could soon face national, feature-length treatment.

Two sources — the former U.S. Attorney who brought racketeering charges against the Glenford Republican, and a GOP operative who blew the whistle on the scheme — both say they’ve been interviewed by HBO for the project.

In March, a jury convicted Householder and lobbyist Matt Borges of engaging in a racketeering conspiracy, predicated on money laundering and bribery. Prosecutors

said Householder, then one of the most powerful state politicians, took a massive bribe from power company FirstEnergy Corp. in exchange for a ratepayer funded bailout of its nuclear plants. Borges, facilitating the scheme, hired private investigators to tail political operatives, and offered one, Tyler Fehrman, a $15,000 payment in exchange for inside information about a political campaign to reverse the bailout.

Prosecutors have said the investigation is ongoing. No charges have been filed against any FirstEnergy officials or the former chief utility regulator who FirstEnergy said in court documents it paid off with a $4.3 million bribe.

Until then, HBO is on the case. Molly Daun, Fehrman’s fiancée, shared photos on Facebook of Fehrman on camera from what she said was the set of a documentary shoot. Fehrman shared the post.

“What. A. Ride,” he wrote. Fehrman said he can’t say much about the documentary, but he confirmed that documentary director Alex Gibney is seen in the photos.

Former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio David DeVillers, who became the public face of the investigation when he unveiled the historic accusation after Householder’s arrest in 2020, said he was interviewed about two months ago. After reviewing his correspondence, he said he swapped emails with a producer from Jigsaw Productions, Gibney’s production company.

Gibney has a long career of chronicling different kinds of white-collar crime: opioid dumping from the pharmaceutical industry; lies to investors from Enron; lies to health care consumers from Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos; or even Lance Armstrong and the rampant culture of doping in 2000sera cycling.

HBO, through a Warner Media spokeswoman, declined to comment. Gibney didn’t respond to a voicemail left with his Jigsaw Productions office.