The indictment names two businesses he led: Industrial Energy Users-Ohio, and Sustainability Funding Alliance of Ohio, the entity through which the $4.3 million payment was made.ĭowling disputed Yost’s allegations that the payment represented any kind of a bribe, vowing to prove his innocence at trial. Mike DeWine nominated him as Ohio’s top utility regulator. Randazzo resigned in November 2020 after FBI agents searched his Columbus townhome and FirstEnergy revealed in security filings that it had paid him $4.3 million for his future help at the commission a month before Republican Gov. Jones, Dowling and Randazzo face a combined 27 new felony counts announced by Yost, including bribery, theft, engaging in corrupt activity, tampering with records and money laundering. Monday’s announcement also included additional charges against Sam Randazzo, former chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, who is already facing 11 counts of charges centered around allegations he accepted bribes from Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. Both he and Dowling were scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday. Jones said through his attorney that he was in Akron when the comment was made, awaiting instructions from the court as to how to proceed. Yost said a grand jury in Summit County, home to Akron, indicted Jones and Dowling on Friday and that the two men promised to turn themselves in Monday to the Summit County Jail but then did not.
