Name: Ohio arrests bribery case: Who are Larry Householder, Matt Borges, Generation Now, others charged
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Ohio arrests bribery case: Who are Larry Householder, Matt Borges, Generation Now, others charged

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Cincinnati EnquirerView CommentsFederal officials on Tuesday morning in connection with a $60 million bribery case.Who's who in the case:The Republican House Speaker, Householder is one of the biggest names in Ohio politics and has been a major player for years in the state's Republican Party. He's known as an aggressive fundraiser who doesn't shy away from hardball tactics on the campaign trail or in the statehouse.He first served as Ohio's House speaker from 2001 to 2004. The FBI launched an investigation in 2004 into allegations that Householder and his aides took kickbacks from vendors and traded legislation for campaign contributions. The investigation ended in 2006 with no charges filed.A term-limited Householder left Columbus in 2004 during the investigation.After returning to the House a few years ago, Householder staged a comeback, with help from Democrats,&nbsp;when he took advantage of GOP infighting and returned to the speaker's post."When everyone else is in complete disarray is usually when I'm at my best," Householder told The Enquirer in 2019.[ Support local journalism. ]The longtime Householder adviser helped form Generation Now, a dark money group that fought to defeat a challenge to Ohio’s nuclear energy bailout. He works with JPL &amp; Associates, a Columbus-based political consulting firm.&nbsp;A former Ohio Republican Party chairman, Borges lobbied for that nuclear energy bailout, representing the company that owns the two power plants – called FirstEnergy Solutions at the time and now named Energy Harbor.He made headlines just last month for announcing he would be voting for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden Borges was ensnared in a bribery scandal in 2004, when he was working with then-Ohio Treasurer Joe Deters, now Hamilton County's prosecutor. He admitted funneling contributions to Deters' campaign from donors seeking to do business with the treasurer's office and pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge.&nbsp;More:More:Disclosure: Matthew Borges is a member of the Columbus-based firm 17 Consulting, which advises The Enquirer on legislative activity affecting the media industry.He's a lobbyist for FirstEnergy Solutions via the Oxley Group, which works in government relations and business development. Cespedes is a current board member of the Ohio Arts Council.Concurrent with his work as a lobbyist, Cespedes also has received an annual salary from the state of Ohio as an appointee to its Civil Rights&nbsp; Commission. Former Gov. John Kasich named Cespedes in 2015 to a five-year term as a commissioner that expires July 29. He was paid $57,824 for&nbsp; 2019, state records show.He's a&nbsp;longtime Householder adviser. Clark founded Grant Street Consultants in Columbus which its website calls a "bipartisan government relations firm." According to his bio on the company website, Clark was called&nbsp;“one of the best-connected lobbyists in Columbus” by USA TODAY. He is a former chief operating officer of the Ohio Senate Republican Caucus.The U.S. Attorney for the&nbsp;Southern District of Ohio,&nbsp; DeVillers was nominated by President Donald Trump on Sept. 9, 2019 and the U.S.&nbsp;Senate approved his confirmation on Oct. 28.&nbsp;He has been an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio since July 2002.DeVillers previously was an Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor for a decade and served as Director of the Organized Crime/Gang Unit for the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office.&nbsp;One of&nbsp;his most notable prosecutions was the Short North Posse federal murder case in which 20 members were convicted on murder and 18 on drug and firearm crimes; it was the largest federal murder case in Ohio's history.&nbsp;DeVillers has worked overseas as a Prosecutor Advisor to the Iraqi High Tribunal during the trial of Saddam Hussein and other members of the former Iraqi Regime in 2006 and 2007. He lived in Tbilisi, Georgia, from 2010 to 2012 as a resident l egal advisor to combat transnational crime, corruption and international money laundering.&nbsp;&nbsp; a nonprofit 501(c)(4) that federal prosecutors link to Longstreth and Householder,&nbsp;also was charged. The&nbsp; "dark money" operation that was not required to disclose donors under federal law. The group hired blockers to stall signature collectors working for those opposed to the bailout.&nbsp;Generation Now was incorporated by Longstreth in early 2017, but federal officials say they have a recording that shows it secretly was controlled by Householder.&nbsp;Federal officials have a recorded conversation of Clark saying “Generation Now is the Speaker’s….”The&nbsp;82-page criminal complaint alleges Generation Now received about $60 million in exchange for Householder and other’s help in the passage of House Bill 6 and the blocking of a ballot initiative to overturn the legislation.Note: There is an in Cincinnati whose mission is workforce development. They have no connection to the Householder case.&nbsp;Contributing: Joe Thomas of the Akron Beacon JournalView Comments

Cincinnati EnquirerView CommentsFederal officials on Tuesday morning in connection with a $60 million bribery case.Who's who in the case:The Republican House Speaker, Householder is one of the biggest names in Ohio politics and has been a major player for years in the state's Republican Party. He's known as an aggressive fundraiser who doesn't shy away from hardball tactics on the campaign trail or in the statehouse.He first served as Ohio's House speaker from 2001 to 2004. The FBI launched an investigation in 2004 into allegations that Householder and his aides took kickbacks from vendors...

Ohio arrests bribery case: Who are Larry Householder, Matt Borges, Generation Now, others charged

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