A former CEO of ComEd, who is a Barrington resident, has been sentenced to two years in prison for her role in a scheme to bribe former Speaker of the Illinois House Michael Madigan.
Anne Pramaggiore, 66, of Barrington, was sentenced earlier this week to two years in federal prison and fined $750,000.
The “ComEd Four,” which included Pramaggiore, along with Michael McClain, 77, of Quincy; John Hooker, 76, of Chicago; and Jay Doherty, 71, of Chicago, were all convicted in 2023 by a jury in U.S. District Court in Chicago on conspiracy and other charges related to a bribery scheme.
Federal prosecutors said McClain conspired from 2011 to 2019 with Pramaggiore, who was ComEd’s then-CEO, and Hooker, who was ComEd’s Executive Vice President of Legislative and External Affairs and lobbyist, as well as Doherty, who was ComEd’s outside lobbyist and consultant, to corruptly influence then-Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives Michael Madigan.
They arranged for jobs and contracts at ComEd for Madigan’s political allies who performed almost no work, prosecutors said. ComEd and Exelon paid out more than $1.3 million.
The two consultants and the two ComEd executives falsified corporate books and records and evaded internal controls at the electric utility company while working to bribe Madigan and gain his help with the passage of certain legislation, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the defendants 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.
McClain worked as a lobbyist and consultant for ComEd after serving in the Illinois House of Representatives in the 1970s and 1980s.
“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,” the assistant U.S. attorneys said.
McClain was sentenced earlier this week to two years in prison and Hooker was sentenced last week to 18 months in prison and fined $500,000. Doherty is scheduled to be sentenced on August 5.
After Pramaggiore was sentenced, a spokesperson for her released a statement saying that they were disappointed in the sentence imposed.
“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 statement said.
“Ms. Pramaggiore, a civic leader, trailblazing electric utilities executive, the only female CEO in Commonwealth Edison’s history — and an innocent woman — will appeal the verdict and sentence to the Seventh Circuit and, if necessary, to the Supreme Court,” the statement added.
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.