Crime & Law

Former ComEd Lobbyist John Hooker Gets 18 Months in Prison for Role in Madigan Bribery Scheme

John Hooker, one of the four former Commonwealth Edison officials convicted of conspiring to bribe ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.

The sentence was handed down at the Dirksen Federal Building on Monday afternoon, more than two years after Hooker and three others were found guilty of charges including bribery conspiracy and willfully falsifying the utility company’s books.

U.S. District Judge Manish Shah said Hooker wasn’t simply engaged in recordkeeping errors, but rather willfully participated in “secretive, sophisticated criminal corruption.”

“Hiding transactions is how corruption succeeds and festers,” Shah said in handing down the sentence Monday. “Refusing to say ‘No, this is not how legislation should be done’ … that caused the state government to fail to live up to its promise to the people.”

Hooker was also ordered to pay a fine of $500,000 as part of his sentence.

He and his three codefendants — former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, Madigan’s longtime confidant Michael McClain, and ex-ComEd consultant Jay Doherty — were each convicted in 2023 after prosecutors alleged they had plotted to give “a continuous stream of benefits” to “corruptly influence and reward Madigan” in order to get his support on Springfield legislation that would benefit the utility company.

The four did so by arranging for ComEd to pay $1.3 million to Madigan allies who were hired as subcontractors, but who actually did little or no work for the utility company. Madigan himself was convicted at a separate trial earlier this year and was sentenced in June to more than seven years in prison.

But rather than paying them directly, prosecutors said Hooker and others arranged for them to be paid through an intermediary — Doherty — in an effort to conceal the payments. Jurors at trial heard numerous secretly recorded conversations in which Hooker and his codefendants discussed these plans.

Hooker’s sentence is well below the recommendation from federal prosecutors that Hooker spend 56 months in prison. Hooker’s defense team had asked for a sentence of probation.

Shah said that while Hooker was an active participant in the conspiracy, he acted more as a “consultant, an advisor,” rather than someone who was lining his own pockets. He called Hooker an “average” participant, but also a “central figure” in the books and records conspiracy.

Hooker, 76, spent decades at ComEd, including serving as the company’s executive vice president of legislative and external affairs from 2008 until he retired in 2012. He then worked as an external lobbyist for ComEd until 2019, a role through which prosecutors said he remained “directly involved in ComEd’s efforts to advance its legislative agenda in Springfield.”

Hooker, who grew up in poverty on the West Side of Chicago in a family directly impacted by drugs and violence, told the court he fought his whole life to avoid being where he was Monday — in front of a judge having been convicted of a crime.

He said he prays he is not “defined by these words and this case” for the rest of his life.

“Looking back, I’ve made mistakes and listening to myself on some of those recordings was really a very humbling experience for me,” he said. “I do not like the way I sound on those recordings. Because of that, I am really sorry that that occurred.”

In one secretly recorded call obtained through a government wiretap, McClain told Hooker that in regards to the subcontractors, “We had to hire these guys because Mike Madigan came to us.”

Prosecutors said conversations like that one made clear the subcontractor payments were being made and concealed to ensure it never came to light that ComEd was paying no-show jobs to influence Madigan.

Prosecutors also claimed Hooker, who testified in his defense at trial, repeatedly lied to jurors when he denied having falsified any ComEd documents and when he claimed the subcontractor payment arrangement was done simply to keep additional management responsibilities off his plate.

Shah on Monday said that Hooker’s denial that he participated in any conspiracy didn’t qualify as perjury, ruling this was no different than entering his plea of not guilty and was unlikely to sway jurors one way or another.

But as for his answers about how and why he arranged the subcontractor payments the way he did, Shah found Hooker’s responses here did amount to “intentionally false and material” testimony.

“The purpose — as Mr. Hooker well knew — was to bribe Mr. Madigan,” Shah said.

Hooker also testified that he was “just joshing around” with McClain when they said they “had to” hire people because of Madigan. Shah found this answer too was a “clumsy lie, but a lie nonetheless.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Julia Schwartz on Monday said Hooker and his codefendants “abused the highest levels of state government in order to gain an advantage for ComEd.” She said Hooker knew Madigan was using ComEd as his “personal piggy bank” and that he “happily joined that effort.”

Hooker exited the courthouse without comment following the hearing. He is the first of the four to be sentenced. Pramaggiore’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 21, followed by McClain on July 24 and Doherty on Aug. 5.

Hooker will turn himself in to authorities and begin serving his sentence Oct. 14 — one day after Madigan will begin serving his own sentence.

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