FIRSTENERGY CORP (FE) Risk Factors

Recent key developments

Concrete developments — dated events, named agreements and instruments, legal proceedings — that FIRSTENERGY CORP surfaced in its latest filing.

• Entered into a three-year Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with the U.S. Attorney's Office on July 21, 2021, resolving the HB 6 investigation, paid a $230 million monetary penalty, and successfully completed the DPA obligations as of July 22, 2024.July 21, 2021
• Federal securities class action In re FirstEnergy Corp. Securities Litigation pending in the Southern District of Ohio, with probable loss not yet estimable.
• January 17, 2025 indictment against two former FirstEnergy senior officers.January 17, 2025
• Multiple PUCO investigations related to HB 6 were stayed and the stay was lifted on February 26, 2024, for four specified proceedings, including an OCC-initiated investigation consolidated with audits; evidentiary hearings in the consolidated audit proceeding scheduled to begin May 13, 2025.February 26, 2024
• September 15, 2020 PUCO proceeding reviewing political and charitable spending by Ohio Companies in support of HB 6 and referendum effort; third-party auditor's report filed on September 30, 2024.September 15, 2020
• December 30, 2020 PUCO directed full review of the Distribution Modernization Rider (DMR); auditor's report filed on January 14, 2022.December 30, 2020
• March 10, 2021 PUCO expanded the 2020 annual audit of Ohio Companies' Rider DCR; stay lifted on February 26, 2024.March 10, 2021
• Energize365 business plan calls for capital investments totaling approximately $28 billion from 2025 through 2029.
• FEV holds a 33-1/3% equity ownership in Global Holding, the holding company for a joint venture in the Signal Peak mining and coal transportation operations; FEV received dividends totaling $170 million in 2022, $165 million in 2023, and $80 million in 2024.
• In January 2025, a new U.S. presidential administration issued an executive order withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement and imposed substantial new or increased tariffs.January 2025
• The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 imposes a new 15% corporate alternative minimum tax (AMT) based on adjusted financial statement income, effective for 2023; U.S. Treasury issued proposed regulations on September 12, 2024.2022
• FirstEnergy expects to pay regular federal corporate income tax for the 2024 tax year due in large part to the gain from closing the FET Equity Interest Sale.2024