Firstenergy fires CEO after 2 plead guilty
Was part of the $61M Householder scheme
Firstenergy fired Chuck Jones as its chief executive officer and named a replacement shortly after two men pleaded guilty in the $61 million Larry Householder bribery investigation Thursday.
“The Independent Review Committee of the Board of Directors of Firstenergy Corp. today announced a leadership transition, including the termination of the company’s chief executive officer, Charles E. Jones, effective immediately,” the Akron utility announced in a press release after the stock market closed Thursday.
The company said an internal review found Jones, a lifelong Akron resident, and two other executives “violated certain Firstenergy polices and its code of conduct.” The company release did not elaborate.
Firstenergy has previously said it had done nothing wrong in connection with the federal investigation into Householder, the former Ohio House Speaker, and others.
Federal agents in July arrested Householder and four other men, including lobbyists for Firstenergy and its former subsidiary Firstenergy Solutions, now known as Energy Harbor. Investigators say Firstenergy Corp. and its subsidiaries funneled $61 million to Householder and his team members, who enriched themselves while pushing a $1.3 billion nuclear energy bailout bill into law. Energy Harbor, spun off as an independent company by Firstenergy through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, owns the Davis-besse and Perry nuclear plants in Ohio that benefited
from the law, known as House Bill 6.
Firstenergy is facing multiple shareholder lawsuits after the utility's stock price plunged following the arrests and the investigation.
In late July, Jones initially addressed the Householder scandal and Firstenergy.
“The financial support we provided to House Bill 6 isn't complicated,” Jones said then. “We know what we did. We know why we did it. We're looking forward to sharing that with the Department of Justice. That's what gives me confidence to say we acted properly.”
Jones also said at that time that Firstenergy's support for Ohio's nuclear plants at no time interfered with or superseded the company's ethical obligations to properly conduct its business. “I believe the facts will become clear as the investigation progresses,” Jones said then.
Jones was born in Akron and grew up in the city's Ellet neighborhood.