A year later, FirstEnergy admitted to bribing the now-convicted and imprisoned Householder and the late public utilities commission chair Sam Randazzo to get the billion-dollar nuclear power plant bailout passed in 2019. In that deferred plea agreement, the utility agreed to pay a $230 million fine. The SEC complaint filed in federal court says Jones told the public that "FirstEnergy acted ethically in this matter" and "transparently." The complaint also alleges Jones misled the company's auditor and helped with misrepresentations FirstEnergy made in an SEC filing. Jones pleaded not guilty to state corruption charges in February, along with former FirstEnergy senior vice president Michael Dowling. The two were fired by the company in October 2020. Randazzo was charged at the same time as the former executives and had also pleaded not guilty to federal charges. He died by suicide in April.