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Violation Tracker Individual Record

Company: FirstEnergy Corp.
Current Parent Company: FirstEnergy
Parent at the Time of the Penalty Announcement:  subscribe to see this data field
Penalty: $100,000,000
Year: 2024
Date: September 12, 2024
Offense Group: financial offenses
Primary Offense: investor protection violation
Secondary Offense: campaign finance violation
Violation Description: These proceedings arose out of FirstEnergy's participation in a multi-year political corruption scheme. Between 2017 and 2020, FirstEnergy and FirstEnergy Solutions, through FirstEnergy Service Company, made payments totaling approximately $60 million to Generation Now (GenNow) in exchange for specific official action for the benefit of FirstEnergy and FES. GenNow, an Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(4) entity, was controlled by a member of the Ohio House of Representatives who was elected as its speaker in January 2019. FirstEnergy made payments to a 501(c)(4) entity to help conceal the source of the payments. On July 23 and 24, 2020, FirstEnergy violated the antifraud provisions of the Securities Act and the Exchange Act by making misrepresentations about its role in the political corruption scheme to investors in an earnings call and in a filing with the Commission. Additionally, FirstEnergy failed to disclose material related party transactions with respect to payments FirstEnergy made to a 501(c)(4) organization funded and controlled in part by certain former FirstEnergy executives. FirstEnergy also failed to keep accurate books and records and to devise and maintain an adequate system of internal accounting controls with respect to payments to organizations organized under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code and the identification and disclosure of material related party transactions.
Level of Government: federal
Action Type: agency action
Agency: Securities and Exchange Commission
Civil or Criminal Case: civil
HQ Country of Current Parent: USA
HQ State of Current Parent: Ohio
Ownership Structure of Current Parent: publicly traded
Major Industry of Current Parent: utilities and power generation
Specific Industry of Current Parent: utilities
Source of Data: (click here)
Archived Source: (click here)
Current parent company note: Parent-subsidiary relationship is current as of the most recent revision listed in the Update Log.