The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the federal racketeering convictions of imprisoned former Republican Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and ex-lobbyist Matt Borges in the state's long-running $60 million bribery scheme. The high court's ruling on Monday leaves in place a unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, issued last May.
Householder and Borges had appealed to the justices after the lower court denied their requests for an en banc hearing before all active judges. The Department of Justice secured the convictions in March 2023 following a yearslong investigation and a trial that lasted more than six weeks.
Householder, now 66, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for masterminding a scheme illicitly funded by Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. The scheme aimed to elect allies, secure political power, pass a $1 billion bailout of two of the company's affiliated nuclear plants, and then defend the bill—known as House Bill 6—from a repeal effort.
Borges, 53, received a five-year sentence for helping undermine the repeal effort. A former chair of the Ohio Republican Party, he was released to a halfway house in Cincinnati in October and is scheduled to be released from custody on November 12, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
