Imprisoned former Speaker of the Ohio State House of Representatives Larry Householder was indicted on 10 more state felony charges on Monday for his involvement in one of the largest corruption cases in Ohio history, reports The New York Times. The charges could also ban him from ever holding public office in the state if convicted.
The charges include three counts of theft, five counts of record-tampering and single counts of money laundering and telecommunications fraud. Householder is currently serving a 20-year prison term for accepting $60 million in bribes funded by the Akron-based FirstEnergy Corporation in exchange for bailing out two unprofitable nuclear power plants owned by the company's subsidiary. Some of the money went to Householder, but most of it was funneled into campaign funding, private detectors, paying people to intimidate political opposition to the bailout, and political action committees that supported Republicans sympathetic to Householder's return as speaker. Householder is appealing the racketeering charges, which assert that he illegally tapped a campaign account to pay $750,000 in legal fees for his defense and that he failed to disclose gifts from lobbyists.