She described her counsel as “business” as opposed to legal advice. She referred to the debt as the product of an unsigned “agreement” but not an “obligation.”
Mike Dowling, a senior vice president and FirstEnergy’s top lobbyist, disagreed. He advised Jones to pay the money, insisting the terms of the company’s settlement with a bloc of industrial scale electric customers required it. Leila Vespoli, then the company’s chief legal officer, agreed with Yeboah-Amankwhah but deferred to Jones.
That’s all according to Yeboah-Amankwah, who testified over three days in Summit County Court of Common Pleas at Jones’ and Dowling’s public corruption trial, which started late last month and could continue well into March.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Yeboah-Amankwah described moving up through the ranks as a FirstEnergy lawyer, rising to become FirstEnergy’s chief ethics officer and corporate secretary, reporting at different points to the company’s CEO and general counsel.
She was ousted from the company in 2020 alongside Jones, Dowling and others involved in the payment to Randazzo.
Yeboah-Amankwah said she signed an immunity agreement with the prosecutors, meaning she can’t be prosecuted for the substance of her testimony. She detailed her years of negotiations around the settlement and her oversight of its cash payouts.
Prosecutors say the $4.3M was a bribe
State officials say the $4.3 million was a bribe paid to Sam Randazzo, the general counsel of the Industrial Energy Users of Ohio. The coalition used its collective power to pressure FirstEnergy and other electric utility companies to give their members better prices via cases at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
Shortly after FirstEnergy discreetly paid Randazzo the $4.3 million in full in January 2019, shirking the public disclosures that sometimes come with similar settlements, Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Randazzo to chair the PUCO. There, Randazzo wielded huge sway over the electric prices FirstEnergy and other utilities could charge customers and the profits they could reap.
Yeboah-Amankwah’s testimony indicates that the two top FirstEnergy lawyers advised Jones against paying the money. Undeterred, Jones executed the transfer. This weakens defense lawyers’ claims that Jones and Dowling were under a legal obligation to pay, and suggests the payment was discretionary.
Vespoli has not yet been called as a witness to confirm Yeboah-Amankwah’s account.
“The decision was deferred to Chuck to make, and Chuck made the decision that we would make the payment,” Yeboah-Amankwah said.
She said to jurors Tuesday she was “concerned” by Randazzo’s role administering the payment to IEU Ohio, a sentiment she voiced to Vespoli around the time she learned that DeWine appointed Randazzo for the job. However, in response to questioning from defense lawyers, she said she didn’t see the $4.3 million payment itself to IEU Ohio as improper.
FirstEnergy lawyers voiced concerns
Yeboah-Amankwah is now the second FirstEnergy lawyer to testify as a witness for the state, telling jurors about concerns that were voiced up the chain of command about FirstEnergy’s contract with IEU-Ohio and Randazzo.
Mark Hayden, another former company attorney, previously testified that he spent about six years complaining about FirstEnergy’s contract with Randazzo. This prompted his separation from FirstEnergy.
“It’s bad enough that we are paying this guy every month to do nothing — but to make it worse, he takes positions in cases that are contrary to the company that hired him to represent its interests,” he said at trial, reading from a 2013 email he sent to Yebaoh-Amankwah. “That is truly the definition of bulls—.”
Yeboah responded at the time, telling Hayden they should let Vespoli, the chief legal officer, know.
“We would not let anyone else on our payroll get away with it,” Yeboah-Amankwah said in response to Hayden’s email.
The prosecution and the defense lawyers in the case generally agree that Randazzo stole millions of dollars paid by FirstEnergy that were intended for the members of IEU Ohio.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The settlement between FirstEnergy and IEU Ohio was memorialized within a document labeled as FirstEnergy’s “consulting services agreement” with a company Randazzo owned. It made no mention of IEU Ohio or even the docket number of the case it purportedly settled.
This unusual practice prevented the company from publicly disclosing to other parties in the case its settlement with IEU Ohio, which called for a cash payout and other terms. And because the money went to accounts Randazzo controlled instead of trusts that lawyers traditionally use to hold money for clients, it was easy for him to allegedly skim off the top unnoticed.
Yeboah-Amankwah said it was Vespoli who asked her to insert the IEU Ohio settlement into Randazzo’s consulting contract. She doesn’t know why.
The $4.3 million payment closed out the amounts owed between 2019 and 2024 under the contract. It was paid just before Randazzo’s appointment to a four-year term. Matt Brakey, IEU Ohio’s chairman, previously testified that those five years’ worth of payments amounted to an extension that he never knew existed, meaning Randazzo could take the entire sum.
But as Steve Grimes, a lawyer for Dowling, has emphasized, FirstEnergy intended the money for Randazzo’s clients, which undermines the notion that it was a bribe paid to Randazzo, who died by suicide in 2024 before he could answer to corruption charges from federal and state officials.
Immunity and emotion
Yeboah-Amankwah said prosecutors offered her the immunity agreement after she indicated she would refuse to answer questions to the grand jury in February 2024 in the case, citing her rights against self-incrimination.
The prosecutors have argued the consulting contract is a thin disguise for a bribe that the executives knew was going to Randazzo, not his legal clients, in exchange for regulatory favors.
The settlement revolved around a request from FirstEnergy at the PUCO to levy new costs on customers. Randazzo, on behalf of customers who would bear the brunt of those cost increases, fought vociferously.
“It was challenging,” Yeboah-Amankwah said. “He seemed to have an issue with everything in the application. When one issue was resolved, new issues sprung up. At times, we were able to make progress, and at times, when we were not, he would elevate it to a higher level.”
This pressure from IEU Ohio eventually yielded a legal settlement. To satisfy its side of the deal, IEU Ohio filed a letter with the PUCO announcing its non-opposition to FirstEnergy’s cost proposal — a statement that carries great weight with regulators.
Friday in court turned particularly emotional. Judge Susan Baker Ross had already rejected a request from Yeboah-Amankwah to direct the media against filming or photographing her on the witness stand given her prominent role in the alleged conspiracy.
At one point, as Dowling’s attorney asked the witness to read an email from her former boss congratulating the staff after negotiations wrapped, Judge Susan Baker Ross called a recess after Yeboah-Amankwah began to cry. This prompted Ross to order a halt in proceedings for a few minutes.
“This email highlighted the team, and just the disappointment for all the work that the team did to — to have it lead to — to this. It’s really disappointing,” Yeboah-Amankwah said, explaining herself after the break.
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