Former Ohio House speaker Larry Householder is now in a federal prison, nearly two months after he was sentenced to 20 years and taken into immediate custody.
Householder, 64, moved from the Butler County Jail to the federal transfer center in Oklahoma City, which is run by the federal Bureau of Prisons.
The center, which is adjacent to the Will Rogers World Airport, incarcerates more than 1,300 men and women. It is used as a temporary hub before inmates are assigned to other prisons.
After a seven-week trial, a federal jury in March convicted Householder and co-defendant Matt Borges, former chairman of the Ohio GOP, of racketeering conspiracy.
Householder led – and Borges supported – a scheme to use $61 million in bribes to return Householder to political power and then in turn pass a $1.3 billion bailout law known as House Bill 6 for FirstEnergy Corp. FirstEnergy admitted to pumping the money through dark money groups to purposely hide the scheme.
“Beyond financial greed, I think you just liked power,” U.S. District Court Judge Tim Black said to Householder at sentencing. “You weren’t serving the people. You were serving yourself.”
Black sentenced Householder to the maximum 20 years in prison. He sentenced Borges to five years, which he is serving at the federal prison in Milan, just south of Ann Arbor, Mich.
Borges and Householder both started their sentences in the Butler County Jail until the federal Bureau of Prisons was ready to take custody.
It is unclear if or when anyone else may be charged in the case. Federal prosecutors said they continue to examine evidence in the ongoing case.
Laura Bischoff is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
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