FirstEnergy has stopped using “dark money” in Ohio after agreeing to disclose future contributions, temporarily abandoning a controversial political spending tactic that was a critical cog in the largest bribery scandal in state history.
The company’s federal PAC has spent about $524,000 in races this cycle, with the most money going to Pennsylvania, Washington D.C. and West Virginia. And
“This effort would not have been possible, both in the nature and volume of money provided, without the use of a 501 entity,” FirstEnergy said. Under the deferred prosecution agreement, FirstEnergy agreed to disclose its payments to dark-money groups during the three-year term of the deal. This disclosure undermines one of the key advantages of using a nonprofit for political spending – secrecy.
The deferred prosecution agreement doesn’t prohibit FirstEnergy from contributing to political nonprofits, but its decision to pull back rather than disclose its contributions in Ohio marks a modest win for prosecutors. When announcing the deferred prosecution agreement, Patel criticized the use of dark-money nonprofits in politics. He characterized them as legal instruments for bribery, hiding behind folksy names like Partners for Progress, which allegedly served as a middleman for about $14 million from FirstEnergy to Householder.