‘You had the power to stop this:' Ex-ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore sentenced to 2 years in prison in scheme to bribe Speaker Madigan

Chicago Tribune

2 days ago

Once a rising corporate star, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore was sentenced Monday to 2 years in federal prison for her role in an elaborate scheme to funnel more than $1.3 million and other perks to associates of then-House Speaker Michael Madigan in exchange for help with the utility's ambitious legislative agenda.
In handing down the sentence, U.S. District Judge Manish Shah acknowledged Pramaggiore's transformative leadership at ComEd and her history of charitable works, but said the evidence at trial showed she also participated in a nearly decade-long scheme that undermined the public's trust in government.
'This was secretive sophisticated criminal corruption of important public policy,' Shah said. 'When it came to Mr. Madigan … you didn't think to change the culture of corruption. Instead you were all in.'
Shah said the dichotomy in Pramaggiore's life led him to 'conclude that people like you, good people in positions of power and authority, need to be deterred too.'
'You had the power to stop this,' the judge said. 'You could have said 'No, this is not how legislation should be done.' You had the power to change the culture at ComEd.'
He also found that she had lied repeatedly during her testimony at trial, particularly in denying knowledge of the connection of ComEd's no-work subcontractors to the powerful Democratic speaker and telling the jury she made no effort to cover it up.
Pramaggiore, who turns 67 in two weeks, showed little outward reaction as Shah announced his sentence, which also included a $750,000 fine.
A few minutes earlier, Pramaggiore had been given the chance to address the judge but declined to do so. 'Thank you your honor. I will stand on my able attorney's commentary and submissions,' she said while remaining seated at the defense table.
Shah ordered Pramaggiore to report to prison by Dec. 1. However her attorney, Scott Lassar, told the judge he will ask for Pramaggiore to remain free on bond pending appeal, given what he said are significant legal issues in the case. Shah asked Lassar to submit something in writing in three weeks.
After the hearing, Pramaggiore walked out of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse without comment. Lassar also declined to make a statement to reporters.
The defense later issued a statement through a spokesman maintaining Pramaggiore's innocence and vowing to appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
'We are disappointed by the sentence imposed today,' the statement read. 'It is nearly impossible to reconcile the sentence — two years in prison — with the federal Probation Department's recommendation of no jail time and probation.'
The sentencing comes more than two years after Pramaggiore's conviction in the 'ComEd Four' case, one of the biggest political corruption scandals in state history.
Last week, her former colleague, ex-ComEd executive John Hooker, was given to a year and a half in prison. Sentencing for the other two defendants, Michael McClain and Jay Doherty, remain pending.
The investigation, which came to light more than six years ago, ended Pramaggiore's stellar career in Chicago's male-dominated C-suite corporate world, where she'd recently been named chief executive of Exelon, a major Fortune 100 energy company that delivered power to millions of customers in the Chicago area and beyond.
Prosecutors asked for a stiff prison term of almost 6 years and a $1.75 million fine, writing in a recent filing that despite all her success, money and professional status, 'she made the choice to participate in a years-long conspiracy that corrupted the legislative process in Springfield' and subverted her own company's internal controls.
In asking for a 70-month prison term, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sarah Streicker, Julia Schwartz and Diane MacArthur also wrote that Pramaggiore lied repeatedly in her testimony during the 2023 trial. which ended in sweeping guilty verdicts.
'She could have remained silent,' Streicker argued in court Monday. 'She had every right to do so, but instead she chose to try and obstruct the jury's process…With her back against the wall she chose to testify and lie in order to protect herself.'
Pramaggiore's attorneys, meanwhile, argued for probation, writing in a court filing of their own that the conduct for which she was convicted was 'a true aberration' in an otherwise exemplary life, not only in her professional path but also in her dedication to her family and charitable works. They also submitted nearly a hundred letters from friends and supporters attesting to her good character.
'She has lost her reputation, her career, and her law license, and she faces even more potential consequences, including further enforcement actions,' Lassar wrote in a 49-page filing. 'Imposing a prison sentence that takes her away from her family, friends, and community will not serve the ends of justice.'
In court Monday, Lassar argued the arrangement to pay Madigan's associates as subcontractors 'was set up by other people,' including McClain, Hooker and former ComEd CEO Frank Clark, who preceded Pramaggiore.
Lassar said ComEd's Smart Grid legislation, which was at the center of the alleged bribery scheme, only became law because of years of tough negotiating and broad coalition building in Springfield, bringing in including big labor, environmentalists, and myriad legislative caucuses.
'She never asked Madigan for help in passing legislation,' Lassar said. '…And she was never aware that Madigan helped do anything to get it passed.'
Pramaggiore and her three co-defendants — McClain, a former ComEd lobbyist and longtime Madigan confidant, Hooker, who was ComEd's vice president for legislative affairs, and Doherty, a consultant and former City Club of Chicago leader — were convicted on all counts in May 2023 after a two-month trial.
The case was then beset by a series of delays, first due to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that reset the rules for a key federal bribery statute and then again after the death of the judge who'd presided over the trial, Harry Leinenweber.
After he was selected to take over the case, Shah earlier this year tossed the underlying bribery counts due to the Supreme Court's decision, but kept intact the main conspiracy count as well as guilty verdicts for falsifying ComEd's books and records, which were charged under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
In their statement Monday, Pramaggiore's legal team referenced both the Supreme Court's decision and President Donald Trump's recent pausing of enforcement of the FCPA, citing overreach and prosecutorial abuse.
'That has happened here,' the statement read. 'Ms. Pramaggiore faces jail despite the documents at issue being true. Chicago is not a foreign jurisdiction…There is nothing foreign or corrupt about the facts here.'
The bulk of the ComEd allegations centered on a cadre of Madigan allies who were paid a total of $1.3 million from 2011 through 2019 through allegedly do-nothing consulting contracts. Among the recipients were two former aldermen, Frank Olivo and Michael Zalewski, precinct captains Ray Nice and Edward Moody, and former state Rep. Edward Acevedo.
In addition, prosecutors alleged ComEd also hired a clouted law firm run by political operative Victor Reyes, distributed numerous college internships within Madigan's 13th Ward fiefdom, and backed former McPier chief Juan Ochoa, a friend of a Madigan ally, for an $80,000-a-year seat on the utility's board of directors, the indictment alleged.
In return, prosecutors alleged, Madigan used his influence over the General Assembly to help ComEd score a series of huge legislative victories that not only rescued the company from financial instability but led to record-breaking, billion-dollar profits.
Among them was the 2011 smart grid bill that set a built-in formula for the rates ComEd could charge customers, avoiding battles with the Illinois Commerce Commission, according to the charges. ComEd also leaned on Madigan's office to help pass the Future Energy Jobs Act in 2016, which kept the formula rate in place and also rescued two nuclear plants run by an affiliated company, Exelon Generation.
Pramaggiore is the second of the ComEd Four to be sentenced. Shah handed a 1 1/2-year prison term to Hooker last week. A hearing for McClain, a retired ComEd lobbyist who doubled as Madigan's right-hand man, will be sentenced Thursday, while the fourth defendant, Doherty, is scheduled to be sentenced in August.
Madigan, meanwhile, was convicted in a separate trial of an array of schemes that included the ComEd bribery payments. He was sentenced in June to seven and a half years in prison.
Defense attorneys for the ComEd Four have repeatedly argued the government was seeking to criminalize legal lobbying and job recommendations that are at the heart of the state's legitimate political system.
They ripped the government's star witness, former ComEd executive Fidel Marquez, as a liar and opportunist who was so terrified when FBI agents confronted him in January 2019 that he flipped without even consulting a lawyer and also agreed to secretly record his friends.
Marquez testified in March 2023 that the roster of 'subcontractors' hired by ComEd was curated by McClain and read like a who's who of Madigan's vaunted political operation, including two legendary precinct captains, a former assistant majority leader in the House and two former Chicago aldermen at the center of Madigan's Southwest Side base of power.
Over the course of eight years, ComEd paid them hundreds of thousands of dollars, even though they had no particular expertise and ultimately did virtually no work for the utility. Some seemed to be downright incompetent, Marquez told the jury.
On cross-examination, Marquez, who pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy and is awaiting sentencing, acknowledged there was 'no guarantee' that Madigan was going to help pass ComEd bills. But he added the company still tried to make Madigan happy because 'not doing it would cause us to be negatively looked on by' the speaker.
He also admitted he initially told the FBI he didn't believe any of it was bribery.
Pramaggiore's lawyers argued in their sentencing memo that she should be punished only for the remaining counts of conviction, which all have to do with falsifying ComEd's books.
But prosecutors say the entire scope of the scheme is still fair game, even if the specific bribery counts were dropped — a position that Shah has agreed with.
At Hooker's sentencing July 14, Shah said the evidence at trial showed the four co-defendants 'were jointly undertaking the quid pro quo bribery of Mr. Madigan, paying out his cronies in exchange for favorable official action.'
'The instructional error doesn't change my factual assessment,' Shah said. 'Not only could a jury reach that conclusion, I reached that conclusion based on my own review.