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.
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Author: Ray Hilbrich
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