A federal jury on Tuesday convicted four top lobbyists and executives at a state-regulated utility in Illinois’ highest-profile corruption case since former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was convicted 13 years ago.
The jury convicted the defendants on all counts in the case in which prosecutors alleged former state lawmaker and lobbyist Michael McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and former contract lobbyist Jay Doherty were involved in a multi-year scheme to gain longtime former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s support for legislation that would benefit the utility’s bottom line.
Pramaggiore lives in suburban Barrington and McClain lives in Quincy. McClain’s wife and sons were in the courtroom when the verdict was read.
The judge must impose reasonable sentences under federal statutes and the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
A judge sentenced Blagojevich to 14 years in federal prison. Then-President Donald Trump commuted Blagojevich’s sentence in 2020 after the former governor had been in prison for almost eight years.
At trial, prosecutors presented secretly recorded videos, wiretapped phone calls and hundreds of emails to show how the four former Commonwealth Edison executives and lobbyists were what they called “the grandmasters of corruption.” Prosecutors alleged that the utility paid out $1.3 million in jobs, contracts and payments to associates of Madigan over eight years in exchange for favorable treatment on legislation in Springfield that would affect the state’s largest electric utility.
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