COLUMBUS, Ohio — A prominent, longtime Columbus lobbyist facing a charge in the federal bribery probe into the passage of House Bill 6 has died.
Neil Clark was found dead with a wound to his head at 11:32 a.m. on Monday near Naples, Florida, according to an incident report from the sheriff’s office in Collier County, Florida. Michelle Batten, a sheriff’s spokeswoman, said the office can’t confirm Clark’s identity or his manner of death until an autopsy is performed.
The report, redacted of identifying information but associated with Clark’s Florida home, said a handgun was recovered from the scene as evidence. The Naples Daily News reported a passing bicyclist called police, who said it didn’t appear to be a suspicious death. An investigator for the local medical examiner’s office said an investigation is underway.
Clark’s attorney, William Ireland, said Tuesday morning he wasn’t available to talk.
Clark, 67, was arrested last July and charged with racketeering as part of a federal investigation into HB6, which bailed out two Ohio nuclear plants owned by a former FirstEnergy subsidiary. Clark was a close political ally of then-House Speaker Larry Householder, who also was arrested and charged as part of the probe.
Clark pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
Clark started his career in Ohio politics as an aide working for the Ohio Senate Republican caucus. He rose to prominence as a lobbyist in the 1980s through State Street Consultants, a firm he co-founded with Paul Tipps, a former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party. The two had a falling out, suing each other in 2009, and Clark later founded his own firm, Grant Street Consultants. Clark represented dozens of clients, including powerful lobbies representing alcoholic beverage distributors, nursing homes and cable companies, as well as payday lenders and the controversial Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, but his work dried up following his arrest last July.
Clark worked on the effort to block an attempt to repeal HB6. He was recorded talking about the campaign as part of what turned out to be an apparent FBI sting operation. Agents posing as developers behind a Cincinnati hotel had hired him in early 2019 to help steer a proposed state law legalizing sports betting to benefit their project, he said in interviews last year. They ended up talking with Clark about HB6, with quotes from their conversations appearing in the 82-page affidavit that was unsealed after the charges were announced.
Clark has said he was working on a tell-all book detailing stories from his decades-long career as a lobbyist. He told a reporter last month the book was nearing publication.
David DeVillers, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio who initially brought the HB6 case, shared news of Clark’s death and expressed his sympathies on Tuesday morning while addressing the Ohio Consumer’s Counsel’s governing board.
In a statement, Acting Southern District U.S. Attorney Vipal J. Patel, who is now overseeing the HB6 probe, said he and others in his office “extend our condolences to Mr. Clark’s family and friends.”