A federal jury in Chicago on Tuesday found former Commonwealth Edison (NASDAQ:EXC) CEO Anne Pramaggiore guilty of bribery in connection with a multiyear conspiracy to pay former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D) for passage of legislation favorable to the utility.
Also found guilty were former ComEd lobbyist and Madigan associate Michael McClain, former ComEd Vice President John Hooker and former ComEd consultant Jay Doherty.
Anne Pramaggiore, former ConEd CEO | © RTO Insider LLC
The four were charged with nine counts of conspiracy to bribe Madigan in exchange for his help in passing bills that set certain rate charges that could not be debated before the Illinois Commerce Commission and produced millions of dollars of profits for the company over several years.
The conspiracy outlined by the U.S. Justice Department and now accepted by the jury included payments of about $1.3 million from the utility to pay contractors favored by Madigan but who did not work, and an arrangement to generate billable hours with a favored law firm that also did no work. ComEd also provided summer jobs for constituents in Chicago Ward 13, where Madigan resided, and the wards of Chicago aldermen allied with the speaker. The scheme also included an appointment of a candidate favored by Madigan to a seat on the company’s board of directors.
John Hooker, lobbyist and former ConEd executive | Chicago Housing Authority
Prosecutors during the trial referred to the payments as a “corruption toll” ComEd paid from 2011 to 2018.
Defense attorneys tried to convince the jury that the efforts of Pramaggiore and the others were just old-fashioned lobbying and not criminal.
A sentencing hearing must still be set. Each defendant faces up to five years in prison.
The guilty verdict came after five days of deliberations following a trial that lasted nearly eight weeks. The four were indicted on Nov. 18, 2020, after an eight-year FBI investigation that included hundreds of hours of wiretapped conversations. (See Ex-ComEd CEO, Officials Charged in Ill. Bribery Scheme.)
Michael McClain, retired lobbyist | WBEZ
ComEd pleaded guilty to bribery in a deferred prosecution agreement on July 17, 2020, agreeing to pay a $200 million fine and cooperate with Justice Department prosecutors for three years. (See ComEd to Pay $200 Million in Bribery Scheme.)
The verdict on all nine counts sets the stage for trials in April 2024 on federal racketeering charges filed against Madigan and his confidant McClain. The Justice Department indicted Madigan in March 2021.
Madigan was speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives for 36 years, the longest-serving leader of any legislative body — both federal and state — in the history of the U.S.