FirstEnergy Corp. has parted ways with another top executive as the company continues to investigate its role in an alleged bribery scheme in Ohio.
Eileen Mikkelsen, vice president of rates and regulatory affairs and acting vice president of external affairs, was "separated from the company" on May 27, FirstEnergy disclosed in a Form 8-K filing.
FirstEnergy said Mikkelsen's "separation" is related to "her inaction regarding the amendment in 2015 of a previously disclosed purported consulting agreement." The agreement was with an entity associated with an individual appointed in 2019 to a full-time role regulating the company's utility subsidiaries, "including with respect to distribution rates."
The former chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, Sam Randazzo, who was appointed in February 2019, abruptly resigned in November 2020 following a disclosure by FirstEnergy that it made a $4 million payment to a person who fit the regulator's professional description.
"FirstEnergy continues to believe that payments under the consulting agreement may have been for purposes other than those represented within the consulting agreement," the company wrote.
A company reportedly owned by Randazzo is listed in a December 2018 court document as providing professional services for former bankrupt FirstEnergy Corp. subsidiary FirstEnergy Solutions, which is now named Energy Harbor Corp.
FirstEnergy has fired several other senior executives, including former CEO Charles Jones Jr., as part of an internal review of the company's ties to a federal racketeering conspiracy case.
An FBI affidavit filed in July 2020 linked the Ohio investor-owned utility and affiliated entities to millions of dollars wired through a 501(c)(4) nonprofit group known as Generation Now to support Ohio's nuclear subsidy law and the enterprise of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio and the FBI filed criminal charges against Householder and four associates accused of accepting more than $60 million in bribes to steer the subsidy law, House Bill 6, through the Ohio Legislature. Plea agreements for two of those charged were filed in late October 2020 in the federal district court in Cincinnati. Another person involved was found dead March 15 in Florida.
Householder has been charged with racketeering and is still a member of the Ohio House of Representatives.
FirstEnergy disclosed in an April 22 federal filing that it has begun talks with the U.S. Attorney's Office, "including the possibility of us entering into a deferred prosecution agreement," in an effort to resolve its role in the alleged bribery scheme.