COLUMBUS, Ohio – A prominent and longtime Columbus lobbyist facing an indictment in the federal bribery investigation for the passing of Bill 6 died.
Neil Clark was found dead with a head wound at 11:32 am on Monday near Naples, Florida, according to an incident report from the sheriff’s office in Collier County, Florida. Michelle Batten, the sheriff’s spokesman, in an email Tuesday afternoon, confirmed Clark’s death.
The report, taken from identifying information but associated with Clark’s Florida home, said a gun was recovered from the scene as evidence. The Naples Daily News reported that a passing cyclist called the police, who said it did not appear to be a suspicious death. An investigator in the local coroner’s office said an investigation was underway.
Clark’s lawyer, William Ireland, said Tuesday morning that he was not available to talk. He told USA Today Ohio: ““ This is a tragic loss for your friends and family. Neil remains innocent. We lost a good friend. “
Clark, 67, was arrested last July and charged with extortion as part of a federal investigation into HB6, which saved two Ohio nuclear power plants owned by a former FirstEnergy subsidiary. Clark was a close political ally of then-Mayor Larry Householder, who was also arrested and charged as part of the investigation.
Clark pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.
Clark, who grew up in Cleveland, began his career in Ohio politics as an aide who worked for the Republican caucus in the Ohio Senate. He gained prominence as a lobbyist in the 1980s through State Street Consultants, a company he co-founded with Paul Tipps, a former president of the Ohio Democratic Party. The two fell out, suing each other in 2009, and Clark later founded his own company, Grant Street Consultants. Clark represented dozens of clients, including powerful lobbies representing liquor distributors, nursing homes and cable companies, as well as payment financiers and the controversial Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, but his work was halted after his arrest last July.
Clark worked in the effort to block an attempt to revoke HB6. It was recorded talking about the campaign as part of what turned out to be an apparent covert FBI operation. Agents posing as developers behind a Cincinnati hotel hired him in early 2019 to help conduct a state law proposal legalizing sports betting to benefit his project, he said in interviews last year. They ended up talking to Clark about HB6, with quotes from their conversations appearing in the 82-page deposition that opened after the charges were announced.
Clark said he was working on a book that tells everything detailing the stories of his decades-long career as a lobbyist. He told a reporter last month that the book was about to be published.
David DeVillers, the former US attorney for the Southern Ohio District who initially brought the HB6 case, shared the news of Clark’s death and expressed his condolences on Tuesday morning, while addressing the board of directors of the Consumer Council of Ohio.
In a statement, the US Southern District Attorney, Vipal J. Patel, who is now overseeing the HB6 investigation, said he and others in his office “extend our condolences to Mr. Clark’s family and friends.”