After client's death, Sam Randazzo's attorney blasts Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost

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An attorney for former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio chairman Sam Randazzo, who died in an apparent suicide Tuesday, lashed out at Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and his team, saying their high-profile approach was unfair.

Randazzo pleaded not guilty to charges in state and federal courts and had publicly said he did nothing wrong. In both cases, he was accused of taking a $4.3 million bribe from Akron-based FirstEnergy shortly before being appointed PUCO chairman and stealing from his law clients over the course of years.

"The actions of the prosecutors in this case were egregious and uncalled for," said attorney Richard Blake, who represented Randazzo in the case brought by Yost.

"Mr. Randazzo was tarred and feathered in the media by the prosecutors in this case before having an opportunity to address the charges," Blake said. He added that the Randazzo family had no comment.

Randazzo, 74, was found dead Tuesday in a Columbus warehouse his company owned. A Franklin County Coroner spokesman called it a suspected suicide.

In a deferred prosecution agreement signed in July 2021, FirstEnergy admitted that it paid Randazzo a $4.3 million bribe shortly before Gov. Mike DeWine picked him as PUCO chairman in 2019.

Responding to Blake's criticism, Yost said state and federal prosecutors are just doing their jobs. "Tragic outcome but nobody bears responsibility for his actions, except him."

The likely impact on the criminal cases

Randazzo's death means state and federal prosecutors will dismiss the criminal cases against him once the death certificate is available.

Yost's team charged Randazzo and former FirstEnergy executives Charles Jones and Mike Dowling. Federal prosecutors only charged Randazzo.

"I was shocked, like everybody else, and saddened," Yost said. "I don't want to see anyone go like that."

Yost said he doesn't think Randazzo's death affects his case.

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Ken Parker has said his team continues to pursue the wide-ranging public corruption case. He has declined to say if or when he'll bring federal charges against others.

In March 2023, Parker's team won convictions in a racketeering conspiracy case against former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio GOP Chairman Matt Borges.

Three former federal prosecutors said that Randazzo's death likely won't hinder the investigation going forward.

Given that he had been indicted in both cases, it was unlikely Randazzo had been cooperating with prosecutors, they said. But now the chance to flip Randazzo and get him to testify against others is gone, they said.

However, University of Dayton law professor Thaddeus Hoffmeister said "I think Randazzo's death makes it more difficult to convict others.  All the defendants can blame Randazzo and he really can't defend himself. I am really surprised that more people aren't talking about this case."

Suicide is a complicated decision that is only understood by the individual and sometimes those close to them. But the pressure of facing financial ruin and or the possibility of years in prison could be contributing factors, the former federal prosecutors said.

Randazzo is the second man connected to the case to die by suicide. Former lobbyist Neil Clark shot himself in Florida in March 2021 while awaiting trial. Clark, who had pleaded not guilty, wore a DeWine for governor t-shirt when he died.

"It's tragic. To some degree it's a manifestation of guys who have lived a life of privilege and a life of luxury and staring at a life that's exactly the opposite for a lengthy period of time and possibly the rest of their lives," said attorney David Axelrod, a former federal prosecutor who now defends clients in white collar cases. "It's a scary prospect. And we saw with Neil Clark, and not related to this case, with Jeffrey Epstein. They'd rather not be alive to live that life."

White collar criminal cases often take years to bring to trial because they involve volumes of records, layers of subpoenas and multiple witnesses. FBI agents searched Randazzo's condo in Columbus in November 2020, prompting him to tender his resignation from the PUCO.

"It's inherent in the system. These take years to develop," Axelrod said.

Randazzo's assets

The government made moves to freeze Randazzo's financial assets in a civil case and seize some of them via the criminal cases.

The Ohio Supreme Court in January said in a unanimous decision that the state could freeze Randazzo's financial assets in a civil case. Yost said on Wednesday that he believes that order survives Randazzo's death.

Yost sued Randazzo in September 2020 and asked a judge to block him from selling or transferring assets. At the time, Randazzo faced no criminal charges but had transferred a house to his son, sold two Florida properties worth about $4 million and sold an Ohio property for $800,000.

Yost's criminal team also sought to force forfeiture of two properties owned by Randazzo, his condo in German Village that he owned with his wife and a Grandview house that he transferred to his son. The condo is worth about $825,000 and the Grandview house valued at $506,000, according to Franklin County auditor records.

Likewise, federal prosecutors included property forfeiture in the criminal indictment against Randazzo. Criminal forfeiture efforts evaporate when a defendant dies, according to former federal prosecutors.

It's unclear if the U.S. Department of Justice also filed civil forfeiture actions to seize Randazzo's properties and assets. Those could continue to be litigated after his death, a former prosecutor said.

Laura Bischoff and Jessie Balmert are reporters 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.

Haley BeMiller contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: How will death of Sam Randazzo impact state and federal cases?