FirstEnergy Loses Bid to Ice RICO Suit as Criminal Case Proceeds

摘要

FirstEnergy Corp. lost an effort to stay discovery in a proposed RICO class action in Ohio federal court over an alleged bribery scheme to secure a $900 million bailout for two nuclearplants.The civil suit and a related criminal action over the bailout may both proceed, the federal court ruled.The company argued that allowing the Ohio ratepayers’ action to continue will hinder FirstEnergy’s ability to defend itself in the criminal action, which should be the priority. FirstEnergyand individual defendants are accused of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and the Ohio Corrupt Activity Act.