Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder arrested in $60 million bribery case

CINCINNATI – Federal officials arrested Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four others on Tuesday morning in connection with a $60 million bribery case.

U.S. Attorney David DeVillers' office would not discuss details of the case, but a source involved in the investigation confirmed Householder's arrest to The Cincinnati Enquirer of the USA TODAY Network.

Also arrested, according to the source: Neil Clark from Grant Street Consultants and once called by USA Today “one of the best connected lobbyists in Columbus"; former Ohio Republican Party chair and consultant Matthew Borges; Juan Cespedes, co-founder of The Oxley Group in Columbus; and Jeffrey Longstreth, adviser to Householder.

The scope of the federal investigation, the dollars involved and the arrests Tuesday make this one of the largest public corruption cases in Ohio in years.

A spokeswoman for DeVillers said an Ohio official and associates were charged in the case, which she described as a "public corruption racketeering conspiracy involving $60 million." DeVillers has scheduled a 2:30 p.m. ET press conference to discuss the case.

The arrests are the result of a nearly two-year FBI investigation that included undercover federal agents who met with Householder and Clark, a source close to the investigation told The Columbus Dispatch. During those meetings, the source said, the two men made incriminating statements.

A dispatcher for the Perry County sheriff's office told the Columbus Dispatch they were assisting the FBI this morning "in the area" of Householder's farm. She declined to specify it was the Householder farm.

Householder is one of the biggest names in Ohio politics and has been a major player for years in the state's Republican Party. He's known as an aggressive fundraiser who doesn't shy away from hardball tactics on the campaign trail or in the statehouse.

Larry Householder:This top Ohio Republican has made a career of thriving in chaos

He first served as Ohio's House speaker from 2001 to 2004. The FBI launched an investigation in 2004 into allegations that Householder and his aides took kickbacks from vendors and traded legislation for campaign contributions. The investigation ended in 2006 with no charges filed.

A term-limited Householder left Columbus in 2004 during the investigation.

After returning to the House a few years ago, Householder staged a comeback, with help from Democrats, when he took advantage of GOP infighting and returned to the speaker's post.

"When everyone else is in complete disarray is usually when I'm at my best," Householder told The Enquirer in 2019.

In his latest stint as speaker, Householder oversaw a controversial, Republican-led bailout of two Ohio nuclear plants owned by FirstEnergy Solutions, of Akron. House Bill 6, signed by Gov. Mike DeWine in June, used ratepayer fees for the $1 billion bailout of the two northern Ohio plants.

The fight to approve the money was long and costly, extending even after the bill was signed into law. An effort to overturn the bailout ultimately failed after it met fierce resistance from well-funded competition. One group was a dark money operation called Generation Now, a 501(c)(4) that was not required to disclose donors under federal law. The group hired blockers to stall signature collectors working for those opposed to the bailout.

The second group, Ohioans for Energy Security, paid for millions of dollars in advertisements, including ones that warned Ohioans that the Chinese would take over Ohio’s power grid if voters repealed the bailout.

FirstEnergy, which spun off FirstEnergy Solutions in bankruptcy proceedings, gave more than $1.1 million to Ohio politicians, including Householder, between 2017 and 2019.

FirstEnergy Solutions was later renamed Energy Harbor Corp. Cespedes, who was among those arrested Tuesday, was listed by the state as a lobbyist last year for Energy Harbor.

Borges, also arrested Tuesday, works for the Columbus-based firm 17 Consulting Group, which contributed $90,000 to a pro-nuclear energy group called Ohio Clean Energy Jobs Alliance, which has ties to FirstEnergy Solutions.

Disclosure: Matthew Borges is a member of the Columbus-based firm 17 Consulting, which advises The Enquirer on legislative activity affecting the media industry.