Former ComEd CEO next defendant to be sentenced in federal corruption
case
[July 21, 2025]
By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – Sentencing is scheduled Monday for former ComEd
Chief Executive Officer Anne Pramaggiore, who was convicted of
corruption in a scheme to bribe former Illinois House Speaker Michael
Madigan.
In May of 2023, a federal jury convicted Pramaggiore and three others of
conspiracy, bribery and falsifying records. Last Monday, U.S. District
Court Judge Manish Shah sentenced the first of the ComEd Four
defendants, ex-ComEd lobbyist John Hooker, to 1.5 years in federal
prison and ordered him to pay a $500,000 fine.
Prosecutors said Pramaggiore should serve 70 months, or nearly six years
in prison and pay a fine of $1.75 million.
University of Illinois Chicago professor emeritus Dick Simpson said he
doesn’t expect any of the defendants to get less than Hooker’s 18
months.
“I think what is most important is that they be sentenced and that they
be fully shown as they were in the trial to have been corrupt and to
indicate to other companies that they shouldn’t engage in these kinds of
practices with politicians in Illinois,” Simpson told The Center Square.
Simpson testified during the Madigan trial, but Judge Harry Leinenweber
did not allow prosecutors to call Simpson as a witness in the ComEd Four
case. Leinenweber ruled that a detailed history of the corruption of the
Chicago political machine could prejudice the jury.
Simpson said judges account for the fact that more than 2,200 public
officials in Illinois have gone to federal prison since 1976.
“They’re going to make sure that they give a sentence, whatever the
length is, that tries to signal to others not to do the same thing,”
Simpson explained.
Pramaggiore served as president and CEO of ComEd from 2012-2018, when
she was promoted to senior executive vice president and CEO of ComEd’s
parent company, Exelon Utilities. She resigned in 2019, when news broke
of the federal investigation involving Madigan, lobbyists and ComEd.
Soon after, Pramaggiore stepped down from her post as chair of the
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
St. Xavier University professor David Parker said Pramaggiore’s position
may call for enhanced sentencing.
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Former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker; Michael McClain, a long time
Madigan confidante; former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore; and Jay
Doherty, a lobbyist and consultant who once served as chief of the
City Club of Chicago.
“She was the CEO. Now you might try to claim plausible deniability on
corporate structure and say, ‘I was too far removed.’ In fact, that’s
what they tried with the subcontractors, to build layers between
themselves. At the trial, they said, “No, you were guilty of conspiracy
and bribery, willingly falsifying books and records.’ The jury just
didn’t believe that they didn’t know what was going on,” Parker told The
Center Square.
ComEd agreed to pay $200 million in 2020 to resolve a criminal
investigation into the years-long bribery scheme. As part of a deferred
prosecution agreement, ComEd admitted it arranged $1.3 million in jobs,
vendor subcontracts and payments to influence Madigan.
On Feb. 12, a jury convicted the former speaker on 10 counts of bribery,
conspiracy, wire fraud and use of a facility to promote unlawful
activity. On June 13, Judge John Robert Blakey sentenced Madigan to 7.5
years in prison and ordered him to pay a fine of $2.5 million. The
longtime speaker and Democratic Party of Illinois chairman is scheduled
to report to prison Oct. 13, although his attorneys have asked that he
be allowed to remain free pending an appeal.
Madigan’s former associate, former state representative and ex-lobbyist
Michael McClain, D-Quincy, was not convicted in the former speaker’s
trial but faces sentencing on Thursday, July 24 in the ComEd Four case.
Sentencing for the final ComEd four defendant, former contract lobbyist
Jay Doherty, is set for Aug. 5.
Pramaggiore’s sentencing is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. Monday at
the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago.
Brett Rowland contributed to this story.
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