Local CEO donated cash to speaker’s ‘enterprise’

The leader of a Columbus-based firm that made its family fortune in Ohio coal provided $25,000 of the money used to open bank accounts for the “dark-money” nonprofit at the center of the House Bill 6 scandal, The Dispatch has learned.

Wayne M. Boich, chairman and chief executive officer of Boich Companies, also later gave $100,000 to a for-profit company that spent nearly $1.5 million to support former House Speaker Larry Householder’s Republican candidates in the 2018 general election.

Boich is the CEO of “Company C,” listed in a federal court criminal complaint charging Householder and four others with racketeering, The Dispatch confirmed with a source close to the investigation of those involved with the campaign for HB 6.

Officials of the company have no comment, Boich spokesman Mike Dawson said Tuesday.

The House Bill 6 pay-to-play and bribery case, as described in a federal complaint, involves Akron-based Firstenergy and affiliates routing nearly $61 million to Generation Now, a dark money nonprofit, to secure passage of the bill and defend it against a referendum repeal effort.

The secret money helped ensure a $1 billion-plus electricity ratepayer bailout of two nuclear power plants then owned by a Firstenergy subsidiary and helped elect “Team Householder” House candidates to provide the votes needed to make him speaker, according to the charges.

The federal court complaint states three times that “Company C has interests aligned with Company A,” which is Firstenergy, although it is neither named nor charged in the federal complaint.

Subsidiaries of Boich Companies and Firstenergy have co-owned the largest underground coal mine in Montana — Signal Peak — since 2008, when Firstenergy invested $125 million and entered a 15-year contract to buy its coal. The companies sold one-third interest in the operation for $400 million to an international trading group in 2011.

In its 2019 annual report, Firstenergy valued its one-third equity stake in the mine at $28 million. The utility is jointly responsible for a $120 million loan due by 2024 toward which only $6 million has been paid and which is secured by the venture’s ownership stakes as collateral.

Wayne Boich and his wife, Cynthia, long have been among Ohio’s largest contributors to Republican political candidates and the state party, donating nearly $1.3 million since 2016 alone. They also have been major backers of Householder and his chosen candidates.

In the two months ahead of the May 2018 primary election, the couple contributed $169,700 to 11 of the 13 “Team Householder” candidates, including eventual House Bill 6 sponsors Reps. Jamie Callender of Concord and Shane Wilkin of Hillsboro, campaign finance records show.

The effort to elect Householder loyalists succeeded in early 2019 when he wrested the speaker’s rostrum from then-rep. Ryan Smith, a Republican from Bidwell. A Generation Now-funded PAC and others spent $2 million to support Householder’s primary candidates.

Wayne and Cynthia Boich and his parents, company founder Wayne Boich and his wife, Emeline, contributed a combined $148,417 to Householder’s personal campaign account. The younger couple then gave $39,877 to the House GOP campaign committee last year after Householder became speaker.

“Company C” first arises in the federal complaint in an October 2016-dated “Game plan 2018” document recovered from indicted Householder political strategist Jeff Longstreth. It discussed how the Householder “Enterprise,” as the FBI called it, could use a dark money nonprofit to fund candidates who would support Householder for speaker. Authorities redacted names from the document about who would fund the operation.

“The question ‘who is our (redacted)’ is a reference to the wealthy, financial backer of the then-current Speaker (Cliff Rosenberger) and thus, the Enterprise is asking in its ‘Game plan 2018’ document, ‘Who will be our financial backer?’ Longstreth’s proposed option (redacted)? Is the CEO of Company C,” the complaint states in a reference to Boich.

When Longstreth opened two bank accounts for Generation Now in early February 2017, the federal court complaint filed last month by U.S. Attorney David Devillers says the transaction included the $25,000 “deposit” of a check from Wayne Boich.

At the time, Generation Now had $275,200 on hand, the complaint states. The dark money group had been “funded solely by a $250,000 wire from Company A, a $25,000 deposit from the CEO of Company C, and a $200 deposit from Longstreth on the date he opened the account.”

The complaint goes on to say that Hardworking Ohioans, a for-profit company not required to disclose its source of funds, spent nearly $1.5 million in the fall of 2018 to support Householderbacked Republican candidates in their general election races, with Generation Now providing $670,000 and Firstenergy giving $500,000.

Hardworking Ohioans’ cash included “$100,000 from ”Company B“and $100,000 from the CEO of Company C,” the complaint states in a reference to Wayne Boich.

The Dispatch and The Cincinnati Enquirer revealed last week that “Company B” is Ohio-based, now-bankrupt coal giant Murray Energy, which sells coal to Firstenergy power plants.

Empowering Ohio’s Economy Inc., a dark money nonprofit funded solely with funds from Columbus-based American Electric Power, gave $150,000 to Generation Now and $200,000 to a PAC that supported Householder candidates, The Dispatch reported previously.

As House Bill 6 was passed by lawmakers last year, Boich Companies and Firstenergy shared a lobbyist — Michael Koren. He was listed in state records as lobbying for HB 6 for Firstenergy but not for Boich Companies.

Koren is the representative of regulated utilities on the nominating council that gives the governor recommendations on who he should appoint as commissioners to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, which regulates Firstenergy and other utilities.

Wayne and Cynthia Boich are among the most prolific political givers in Ohio, with the Boich Companies’ website listing it as a diversified “third-generation family investment office.”

The couple, and his parents, who all live in Miami Beach, Florida, also gave $277,825 to the Ohio Republican Party from 2016 to 2019.

The younger couple gave $37,497 in 2018 to the winning campaign of Republican Gov. Mike Dewine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted.

Boich Companies President Matt Evans, appointed last year by Dewine to the Ohio University board of trustees, gave $25,416 to the ticket. Dewine supported HB 6, but wants the legislature to repeal and replace the law to preserve the nuclear power plants and their jobs.

Mike Dawson, the Boich Companies’ spokesman, was the top communication and media aide to the late Republican Gov. George V. Voinovich and Dewine during part of his service in the U.S. Senate. Dawson is married to Laurel Pressler Dawson, chief of staff to Dewine both as governor and senator.

Other large recipients of donations from Wayne and Cythina Boich between 2016 and 2019 include Ohio Auditor Keith Faber at $98,013, with $62,596 coming when he was president of the Ohio Senate in 2016 and 2017.

Others and the amounts they received: Sen. Matt Huffman, R-lima, $70,522; Rep. Anthony Devitis, Rgreen, the No. 4 House leader as assistant majority leader, $42,708; Sen. Matt Dolan, R-chagrin Falls, $39,117; Attorney General Dave Yost, $36,416; and Rep. Jay Edwards, R-nelsonville, the No. 5 House leader as majority whip, $35,416. rludlow@dispatch.com @Randyludlow