AT&T to pay $23M in lobbying probe

CHICAGO — AT&T Illinois has agreed to pay $23 million as part of a federal criminal investigation into the company’s illegal efforts to influence former House Speaker Michael Madigan.

The investigation of AT&T Illinois, which was reported by the Chicago Tribune earlier this year, is being resolved with a deferred prosecution agreement under which the company admitted it arranged for payments to an ally of Madigan to influence the powerful speaker’s efforts in assisting with legislation sought by the company in Springfield, Ill.

In exchange for admitting guilt and paying a $23 million fine, the charge will be dropped by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in two years. AT&T is under scrutiny by the U.S. Attorney’s Office as part of the investigation into Madigan’s political operation.

In February, AT&T disclosed in a regulatory filing that federal prosecutors had notified the company they were considering filing criminal charges against its Illinois subsidiary, formally known as Illinois Bell Telephone Co. LLC, involving “a single, ninemonth consulting contract in 2017” worth $22,500.

State records show the company that year had hired a stable of Madigan-connected lobbyists working for the Illinois subsidiary as AT&T was fighting for a controversial bill to end landline service.

The Tribune reported that investigators were specifically looking at thousands of dollars in payments allegedly passed to former state Rep. Edward Acevedo, a onetime member of Madigan’s leadership team who’d recently left the General Assembly.

The payments to Acevedo were made via a lobbying contract between AT&T and Thomas Cullen, a former Madigan staffer and longtime political strategist aligned with the speaker, two sources told the newspaper.

Acevedo was a registered lobbyist at the time, state records show, but not for AT&T, and the sources said the amount of work Acevedo actually did for AT&T remains in question.