Th OH house speaker and several other Republicans have been arrested by the FBI related to a $60 million dollar scheme to tax the residents of OH and funnel the money to nuclear and coal power companies. The crime involves a fraudulent 501(c)(4) non profit used to funnel money “donated by an energy company to help elect Householder and other Republicans who would be helpful in passing a law to obtain the funding for the company. After the law was passed, more money was “donated” to defeat a ballot initiative to repeal the law. It’s not hard to imagine that many similar schemes are active at the federal level in order to keep the GOP lawmakers loyal to Trump instead of to their constituents.
"Make no mistake, this is Larry Householder's 501 (c)(4)," U.S. Attorney David DeVillers told reporters on Tuesday. The money from the scheme was spent to the detriment of other political candidates and the people of Ohio, DeVillers said.
Members of Householder's enterprise used those payments for their own personal benefit and to gain support for Householder's bid to become speaker, prosecutors say.
Regular payments to Householder's secret company from Company A began in March 2017, a couple months after he took a trip on Company A's private jet, according to the federal complaint. But the payments got much bigger after the legislation was introduced: In May 2019, while the bill was pending before lawmakers, Company A allegedly wired $8 million to Generation Now.
After the bill was signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine, a campaign began to organize a ballot initiative to overturn the law. Company A-controlled accounts responded by wiring $38 million to Householder's company between July and October 2019.
In total, Company A allegedly paid the Householder enterprise $60 million over a three-year period, in exchange for the billion-dollar-bailout.
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