From the U.S. Attorney:
CONSULTANT SENTENCED TO TWO YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR CONSPIRING TO FALSIFY RECORDS AND EVADE INTERNAL CONTROLS AT COMMONWEALTH EDISON
CHICAGO — A federal judge in Chicago today sentenced a consultant to two years in prison for conspiring with Commonwealth Edison executives and another consultant to falsify corporate books and records and evade internal controls at the electric utility company as part of an effort to bribe former Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives Michael J. Madigan and gain his assistance with the passage of certain legislation.
MICHAEL McCLAIN, 77, of Quincy, Ill., and three others were convicted in 2023 by a jury in U.S. District Court in Chicago on conspiracy and other charges related to the bribery scheme.
U.S. District Judge Manish S. Shah sentenced McClain to two years imprisonment during a sentencing hearing today in federal court in Chicago.
McClain worked as a lobbyist and consultant for ComEd after serving in the Illinois House of Representatives in the 1970s and 1980s.
Evidence at trial revealed that from 2011 to 2019, McClain conspired with ComEd’s then-Chief Executive Officer, ANNE PRAMAGGIORE, ComEd’s Executive Vice President of Legislative and External Affairs and lobbyist, JOHN HOOKER, and ComEd’s outside lobbyist and consultant, JAY DOHERTY, to corruptly influence Madigan by arranging for jobs and contracts at ComEd for Madigan’s political allies, often in instances where those people performed little or no actual work.
The conspirators caused the creation of false contracts, invoices, and other books and records to disguise the true nature of the payments and to circumvent internal controls at ComEd and its parent company, Exelon Corp.
- Pramaggiore, 66, of Barrington, Ill., was sentenced earlier this week to two years in federal prison and fined $750,000.
- Hooker, 76, of Chicago, was sentenced last week to 18 months in prison and fined $500,000.
- Doherty, 71, of Chicago, is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 5, 2025.
The sentences were announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Douglas S. DePodesta, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI, and Ramsey E. Covington, Special Agent-in-Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in Chicago. The government was represented today by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sarah Streicker, Diane MacArthur, and Julia Schwartz, and was previously represented by former Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet S. Bhachu.
“Through their web of lies, defendants deceived internal auditors, rate payers, and shareholders, and abused the highest levels of state government,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sarah Streicker, Diane MacArthur, and Julia Schwartz argued in the government’s memorandum ahead of McClain’s sentencing.
“Many public officials, and many lobbyists, adhere to the rules and to the law.
“But for those who do not, or who may be tempted to design their own illegal plan as a way around them, a message must be sent that a long prison sentence awaits them when they are caught.”
Madigan, 83, of Chicago, was convicted by a separate federal jury earlier this year on ten corruption charges, many of them related to the ComEd bribery scheme.
Madigan was sentenced last month to seven and a half years in federal prison and fined $2.5 million.
