Former Ohio GOP chair joins ex-speaker in prison for largest corruption scandal in state history

Former Ohio Republican party chairman Matt Borges was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for his role in the largest corruption scandal in Ohio history, the Associated Press reported.

The sentence comes a day after former Ohio Speaker of the House Larry Householderhas been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Borges was immediately taken into custody and escorted from the courtroom in handcuffs after his sentencing.

Both were convicted in April of a single racketeering charge each.

Householder was behind a $60 million bribery scheme secretly funded by Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. “to secure Householder’s power, elect his allies, pass legislation containing a $1 billion bailout for two aging nuclear power plants owned by a FirstEnergy affiliate and then to use a dirty tricks campaign to stifle a ballot effort to overturn the bill,” the AP reported Thursday.

Borges reportedly offered a bribe in exchange for inside information on a referendum effort to repeal the bailout law.

Read the full report over at the Associated Press.