Note: The full indictment can be read at the bottom of this page.
Two former ComEd executives and two consultants, one a longtime confidant of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and the other the former president of City Club of Chicago, have been indicted on multiple federal charges alleging they conspired in a bribery scheme to influence the powerful lawmaker - identified only as "Public Official A" - in return for legislation favorable to the utility giant, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Anne Pramaggiore, John Hooker, Michael McClain and Jay Doherty were each charged with multiple counts of bribery conspiracy, bribery and willfully falsifying ComEd records, according to the indictment.
Pramaggiore, 62, is the former CEO of ComEd who headed the utility from 2012 to 2018 and later served as an executive at an affiliate of Exelon Corporation, according to the indictment.
Hooker, 71, formerly served as ComEd's executive vice president of legislative and external affairs until 2012. Hooker also worked as an external lobbyist for the company after his departure.
McClain, 73, worked as a lobbyist and a consultant for ComEd and is a longtime friend and confidant of Madigan’s after the two served together in the Illinois House for 10 years beginning in 1972.
Doherty, 67, owned a consulting company that performed services for ComEd from 2011 to 2019, the indictment reads. He previously served as head of the City Club of Chicago, a nonprofit public affairs forum that often hosts speaking events with prominent business and political leaders in the city and state, before resigning late last year under the cloud of the federal investigation.
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Attorney information for the four charged was not immediately available.
Prosecutors say the four defendants attempted to influence and reward “Public Official A” for a period of approximately eight years between 2011 and 2019.
The indictment identifies "Public Official A" as the Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives and Democratic committeman for Chicago's 13th Ward - a description that seemingly only fits Madigan, the longest serving statehouse speaker in the U.S. who also serves as the chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois.
“During that time, ‘Public Official A’ controlled what measures were called for a vote in the Illinois House of Representatives and exerted substantial influence over fellow lawmakers concerning legislation affecting ComEd,” the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois said in a statement announcing the charges.
The indictment alleges that the defendants in the case attempted to arrange for jobs and contracts for “Public Official A’s” allies and employees as part of the scheme.
In July, ComEd agreed to pay $200 million as part of a deferred prosecution agreement to resolve a federal criminal investigation into a bribery scheme in which investigators say the utility company admitted to arranging jobs and payments for associates of an elected official, referred to again only as “Public Official A,” for nearly a decade.
A spokeswoman for Madigan issued a statement after that agreement was reached, which denied any wrongdoing. The statement also confirmed that Madigan had been subpoenaed in connection to the case and would cooperate with the investigation.
“The Speaker has never helped someone find a job with the expectation that the person would not be asked to perform work by their employer, nor did he ever expect to provide anything to a prospective employer if it should choose to hire a person he recommended," Madigan spokeswoman Maura Possley said in a statement. "He has never made a legislative decision with improper motives and has engaged in no wrongdoing here. Any claim to the contrary is unfounded."
