04:05 PM EDT, 08/13/2024 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates details throughout.)

First Energy said Tuesday it has struck a deal to avoid state prosecution and pay $20 million over its role in a bribery scandal in Ohio.

The agreement announced in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission follows a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement the energy company reached with federal prosecutors over the so-called HB 6 scandal in which it agreed to pay a $230 million fine.

The scandal saw the company pay more than $60 million in bribes to a former top regulator and state House speaker to pass House Bill 6 in 2019, which included a $1 billion ratepayer bailout of two of its nuclear plants in the state.

The company said Tuesday it would pay $19.5 million to the state, which would be donated to a "non-energy" charity after reimbursing itself, Delaware County Prosecutor's Office, and the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission for the costs of their investigation.

"FirstEnergy today is not the company it was five years ago -- the corporation has undertaken, and continues to undergo, reforms to strengthen its internal ethics programs, to increase transparency, and promote reporting of questionable conduct by its employees and leadership," a spokesperson for the Ohio State Attorney General's Office told MT Newswires in a statement. "It has also restructured its board and leadership to remove the individuals responsible for the conduct that gave rise to the House Bill 6 scandal."

The company also agreed to cooperate in the state's civil lawsuit against remaining defendants in the scandal, as well as the criminal cases against former FirstEnergy executives Chuck Jones and Mike Dowling. They were indicted on corruption charges in Summit County earlier this year.

The Summit County Prosecutors Office declined comment to MT Newswires, citing the open case against the two former executives.