A federal judge in Cincinnati sentenced former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder (R) to 20 years in prison Thursday for taking bribes from FirstEnergy to pass legislation subsidizing the company’s nuclear plants.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Black ordered Householder handcuffed before deputies took him from the courtroom despite a request by his attorney to allow him to report to prison later.

Householder asked the judge for clemency on behalf of his family before he was sentenced. He is expected to appeal. Federal prosecutors asked for the maximum sentence of 16 to 20 years. Co-conspirator Matt Borges, a former Ohio Republican Party chairman, is scheduled to appear before Black for sentencing Friday.

“Larry Householder led a criminal enterprise responsible for one of the largest public corruption conspiracies in Ohio history,” U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker said in a statement following the hearing. “Elected officials owe a duty to provide honest services to their constituents — transparency, integrity and accountability are foundational principles of democracy. Householder once held one of the three most powerful offices in the state of Ohio. Now, because of his corruption, he will serve a substantial prison sentence.”

“The people of Ohio are the true victims of Larry Householder’s corrupt scheme to increase his power and pass a billion-dollar corporate bailout,” FBI Cincinnati Special Agent in Charge Will Rivers said. “While we hope this sentence clearly demonstrates that corruption does not pay, the FBI will continue to investigate and pursue those who abuse their positions and take advantage of the public.”

A jury in March found Householder and Borges guilty of racketeering conspiracy charges connected to a yearslong conspiracy orchestrated with FirstEnergy. (See Householder Convicted in FirstEnergy Bribery Case.) Both men have been free on bond.

The arrangement enabled the speaker to funnel cash through two dark money groups to fund the election campaigns of allies in both chambers of the legislature who favored a public bailout of the company’s uncompetitive Ohio nuclear power plants.

Lawmakers approved the legislation, House Bill 6, in July 2019. Householder and the company, again using dark money connections, defeated a ballot issue nullifying the legislation. A federal grand jury indicted Householder and four others in July 2020. The legislature later removed the nuclear subsidy from the law but kept an unrelated subsidy for two 70-year-old coal power plants on the Ohio River.

Despite moving the ownership of the nuclear plants to a subsidiary several years earlier, FirstEnergy had sought ratepayer funding for them as early as 2014 in a case before the Public Utilities Commission until FERC intervened. The company’s lobbying efforts for legislation creating a public subsidy died in legislative committees.

FirstEnergy, identified as “Company A” in the 2020 indictment, denied wrongdoing but then agreed to pay a $230 million fine in a deferred prosecution agreement. (See DOJ Orders $230 Million Fine for FirstEnergy.) Former CEO Charles Jones and Michael Dowling, senior vice president of external affairs, were fired in October 2020.

The federal probe also prompted the company to reorganize its board of directors, creating a watchdog committee to investigate top management’s ethical practices. Several other senior managers have since been fired.

“Millions of Ohio utility consumers are seeing a measure of justice today, regarding the tainted House Bill 6, with the federal judge’s sentencing of the former speaker of the House,” Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Bruce Weston said in a statement. “But more justice needs to be served. More justice should include the legislature repealing the coal power plant subsidies that the scandalous legislation still requires Ohioans to pay to AEP, Duke and AES.

“More justice also should include the [Public Utilities Commission of Ohio] lifting its stay on our and others’ investigations into any improper charges to consumers by FirstEnergy.”