A Franklin County court has frozen some of the assets of the former head of Ohio’s utility regulator. Sam Randazzo has not been charged but Akron-based FirstEnergy admits to bribing him as part of a nuclear power plant bailout scandal that rocked the Ohio Statehouse.
Randazzo is accused, in a civil suit, of receiving a $4.3 million dollar bribe from FirstEnergy as part of the House Bill 6 scandal. Attorney General Dave Yost says Randazzo appeared to have been shifting assets around. So Yost says he went to court to keep Randazzo from selling or transferring personal property before the civil case is decided.
“It looks like some of the assets that were liquidated – the money came into an account and may have already been transferred elsewhere," Yost says.
Yost says Randazzo has transferred his home to his son and sold four other properties worth $4.8 million.
Randazzo has not been criminally charged but FirstEnergy admitted to paying the bribe before House Bill 6 passed.
Federal charges were filed last year against former House Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford), the former head of the Ohio Republican Party, Matt Borges, and three others.
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