FirstEnergy shareholders' attorneys identify Charles Jones, Michael Dowling for devising House Bill 6 payments

CLEVELAND — Attorneys for FirstEnergy Corp. shareholders Wednesday identified two former senior executives at the Akron utility as people behind the payments in the House Bill 6 scandal. The attorneys said that if the case had gone to trial, evidence would have shown that Charles Jones, the former chief executive officer, and Michael Dowling, who had led FirstEnergy's lobbying efforts, "devised and orchestrated FirstEnergy's payments to public officials in exchange for favorable legislation and regulatory action." Neither Jones nor Dowling has been charged. The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com has reached out to their attorneys, Carol Rendon and John McCaffrey. Jones and Dowling were fired in October 2020, months after then- Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four allies were indicted on federal racketeering charges. The lawyers for the investors said the men "have vehemently denied acting improperly." U.S. District Judge John Adams ordered attorneys for the investors to file by noon the names of the people "who paid the bribes" in the tainted legislation. Adams made the order after attorneys attempted to sidestep his questions by claiming the confidentiality of the mediation process. Investors, on behalf of the company, sued the utility's directors and officers in the summer of 2020 before Adams, and they alleged a lack of oversight that led to what authorities have called the largest bribery scheme in Ohio. Other cases are pending in U.S. District Court in Columbus and in Summit County Common Pleas Court. The investors' allegations, filed in what is known as a derivative lawsuit, stem from the $60 million in payments delivered to a nonprofit tied to Householder, a Republican. He has denied the allegations. In exchange for the payments, Householder and a group of allies pushed a $1.3 billion legislative bailout of two aging nuclear plants that had been owned by a former FirstEnergy subsidiary. ©2022 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit cleveland.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.