Larry Householder

These are the first state charges against Republican former speaker Larry Householder, who’s serving 20 years in federal prison.

A new WOSU podcast explores the people, politics and profit motivation at the heart of what's been called Ohio's biggest public corruption case.

Householder is listed as an inmate in at the Oklahoma City Federal Transfer Center, after previously being held in the Butler County Jail. The transfer center is used to house offenders before they have been assigned to a permanent prison facility.

It's been three years since federal authorities arrested Householder and four others on bribery charges, but the Ohio legislature has done nothing to either regulate or do away with "dark money" funds.

The sentence was handed down after Householder and former Ohio Republican Party chair Matt Borges were found guilty in a corruption trial back in March.

Householder, along with former Ohio Republican Party Chair Matt Borges, have been convicted in federal court of wrongdoing in connection with the House Bill 6 scandal.

In the last few years, several bills to repeal all or some of House Bill 6 have been introduced but have failed.

Ohio law may be too weak to convict a corrupt public official, but federal prosecutors have a more powerful hammer.

Experts see the case against former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and lobbyist Matt Borges as a test of limits on dark money in Ohio politics.

Former U.S. Attorney David DeVillers said comments from his successor made previously and then outside the courthouse in Cincinnati after the verdicts suggest the case continues.