Ex-Ohio House speaker Larry Householder listed as inmate in federal Oklahoma prison

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Former Ohio House speaker Larry Householder, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in connection to orchestrating a $60 million bribery scandal, is listed as an inmate in an Oklahoma prison.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons lists the 64-year-old as an inmate of the Oklahoma City Federal Transfer Center after previously being held in Butler County Jail. Former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges, also convicted in the scandal, is listed as being held in a federal correctional institution in Milan, Michigan.

U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Black announced Householder’s sentence in June, three months after the ousted speaker was convicted on federal racketeering charges for accepting a $60 million bribe from Akron-based FirstEnergy, in exchange for passing a $1.3 billion ratepayer-funded nuclear power plant bailout and squashing a referendum effort against it.

Federal prosecutors requested Householder receive a 16- to 20-year prison sentence “for causing immeasurable damage to the institution of democracy in Ohio, through his direction of a criminal enterprise,” according to court filings. The former speaker’s defense attorneys, however, asked for a lighter one-year sentence. In July, Householder appealed his conviction while still being held in Butler County jail.

Prior to Householder and Borges’ trial, two other Ohio political operatives, longtime Householder adviser Jeffrey Longstreth and lobbyist Juan Cespedes, took plea deals in 2020 for their involvement in the case. A fifth defendant, lobbyist Neil Clark, died by suicide in 2021.

Attorney General Dave Yost is pursuing a separate civil lawsuit against Householder, FirstEnergy, former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio leader Sam Randazzo and others implicated in the HB 6 scandal.