Legal dispute continues for Ohio utility regulator in bribery investigation.

The legal dispute over whether it was appropriate to freeze $8 million dollars in personal assets belonging to a former top Ohio utility regulator caught up in a federal bribery investigation continues. In a ruling, the Ohio Supreme Court reversed the Tenth District Court of Appeals’ decision and reinstated a lower court’s order, allowing Sam Randazzo’s assets to be frozen once again. The high court determined the appeals court erred on a technicality when it unfroze Randazzo’s property. It’s just the latest development in the years long fight over property belonging to Randazzo, a one-time chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. Federal prosecutors last month charged Randazzo with 11 counts in connection with an admission by Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. that it paid him a $4.3 million dollar bribe, in exchange for favorable treatment. Randazzo has pled not guilty. Writing for the majority, Justice Pat DeWine said the three-judge panel was wrong when it unfroze Randazzo’s assets in December 2022, a decision that had been on hold, amid the ongoing litigation.