Two former FirstEnergy executives were reindicted Tuesday on public corruption charges stemming from the House Bill 6 scandal — Ohio’s largest-ever bribery scheme — after a two-month trial ended in a mistrial in March when jurors could not reach a verdict.
A Summit County grand jury charged Charles “Chuck” Jones, the former CEO of the Akron-based electric utility, and Michael Dowling, the company’s former senior vice president of external affairs, with a combined 22 felony counts. Prosecutors allege that between 2010 and 2021 the two men operated as part of a criminal enterprise that bribed state officials, concealed their activities through false ethics disclosures and bent the power of Ohio government to serve FirstEnergy’s financial interests and their own.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Summit County Prosecutor Elliot Kolkovich announced the reindictment jointly.
“The roots of this complex case haven’t changed — FirstEnergy was hijacked by two scheming executives who sought to control the regulator that influenced the company’s stock prices,” Yost said. “I’m confident that Ohio’s ratepayers will get justice when the facts are unearthed in the courtroom.”
Jones faces eight felony counts including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, two counts of telecommunications fraud, conspiracy, bribery, tampering with evidence and two counts of obstructing justice. Dowling faces 19 felony counts including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, two counts of telecommunications fraud, conspiracy, bribery and 14 counts of tampering with records.
Five of the charges name both defendants.
Jones and Dowling were originally indicted in February 2024 alongside Samuel Randazzo, the former chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio — the state agency that regulates electric utilities including FirstEnergy. Randazzo died by suicide before the trial began.
The House Bill 6 scandal involved the passage of a 2019 Ohio law that provided more than $1 billion in ratepayer-funded bailouts to two nuclear power plants. Federal prosecutors previously established that FirstEnergy and its associates funneled approximately $60 million to entities controlled by then-Speaker of the Ohio House Larry Householder in exchange for passing and defending the legislation. Householder was convicted of racketeering in 2023 and is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence.
The reindictment against Jones and Dowling focuses on the utility’s alleged efforts to control the Public Utilities Commission — the regulator that directly influenced FirstEnergy’s stock price and financial performance — rather than the Householder bribery scheme that was the subject of the federal case.
The case was investigated by a task force operating under the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission at the request of the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office is prosecuting jointly with the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office. No trial date has been set.