Consulting funds flowing from AT&T to a lobbyist with deep ties to then-House Speaker Michael Madigan and eventually to a former state representative are at the center of a federal investigation into the telephone giant’s lobbying practices in Springfield, the Tribune has learned.
Last month, AT&T disclosed in a regulatory filing that federal prosecutors had notified them they were considering filing criminal charges against its Illinois subsidiary, formally known as Illinois Bell Telephone Co. LLC, involving “a single, nine-month 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.
Among them was Thomas Cullen, and two sources familiar with the probe said a contract with Cullen is among those under scrutiny. Investigators are looking specifically at thousands of dollars in contract payments allegedly passed on to former state Rep. Edward Acevedo, a onetime member of Madigan’s leadership team who’d recently left the General Assembly, the sources said.
Acevedo was a registered lobbyist at the time, state records show, but not for AT&T, and sources said the amount of work Acevedo actually did for AT&T is in question.
Neither Cullen nor Acevedo has been charged with any wrongdoing involving AT&T, and there was no indication in the SEC filing that they might be in legal jeopardy.
Cullen, a former Madigan staffer and longtime political strategist aligned with the speaker, has not responded to repeated requests for comment.
The filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said the subsidiary has been cooperating since 2019 in the “widely reported investigation of certain elected Illinois politicians and related parties for corruption.”
“Based on our own extensive investigation of the facts and our engagement with the U.S. attorney’s office, we have concluded that the contract at issue was legal in all respects and that any charge against Illinois Bell or its personnel would be without merit,” the filing stated.
Acevedo, in a brief telephone call last week, said he would “rather not say” whether he worked on behalf of AT&T. Asked if he had received a contract through Cullen’s firm, Acevedo said: “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
Acevedo could not be reached this week. His attorney did not respond to a message seeking comment.
A spokesman for AT&T declined to answer a list of questions by the Tribune, referring instead back to the SEC filing.
Madigan, who was dethroned from his role as speaker in January 2021 and later resigned his House seat, has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing.
Federal investigators first focused on the payments to Acevedo more than two years ago as part of a broader probe into whether AT&T was improperly rewarding those favored by Madigan in exchange for the powerful speaker’s help with the landline bill, according to the sources familiar with the matter.
Several other contracts AT&T gave to other Madigan-connected lobbyists were also being scrutinized, and investigators have interviewed numerous people involved in the company’s lobbying push, sources said.
That investigation appeared to be on the back burner for months as the U.S. attorney’s office focused on similar allegations against utility giant Commonwealth Edison, which has been accused of trying to influence Madigan by funneling money to lobbying and consulting firms headed by the speaker’s allies.
Five people, including Madigan’s longtime confidant, Michael McClain, and former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, have been charged with bribery conspiracy as part of that case, while ComEd entered into a deferred prosecution agreement admitting its conduct in the scheme in exchange for prosecutors dropping the charges in 2023. Madigan’s former chief of staff, Tim Mapes, was charged last year with lying to a federal grand jury investigating the case.
Also charged as an offshoot of the ComEd investigation was Acevedo, who pleaded guilty in December to evading about $37,000 in taxes owed on income from his consulting business from 2015 to 2017. Though the charges don’t specifically mention ComEd, Acevedo previously told the Tribune he’d been interviewed by federal investigators as part of that probe.
The federal scrutiny of AT&T was first revealed on the day ComEd’s deferred prosecution deal was made public in July 2020, when federal prosecutors subpoenaed Madigan’s office for “any and all documents and communications” concerning AT&T, including contracts and correspondence related to the hiring of anyone to provide consulting or lobbying services to the public utility.
Later that month, the Tribune reported that AT&T itself had been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors amid the widening criminal probe into Madigan’s vaunted 13th Ward operations. In a statement to the Tribune at the time, AT&T said only that, in general, it cooperates with any requests from law enforcement.
“Like all companies, from time to time we are required by law to provide information to government and law enforcement agencies,” the statement read. “As always, we cooperate with their fact gathering process.”
Similar to the ComEd case, AT&T had a big legislative goal in 2017: passing a controversial bill to end traditional landline telephone service to the remaining 1.2 million customers in Illinois.
Critics of the landline bill including the AARP Illinois and the Citizens Utility Board watchdog group were pushing back, saying the legislation would leave behind hundreds of thousands of Illinois residents, particularly seniors, who disproportionately rely on traditional landline telephone service for everything from connecting with family to monitoring life-threatening medical conditions.
In the midst of the debate, former Madigan political director Eileen Mitchell returned to AT&T after a brief stint as then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s chief of staff. She is now the head of AT&T Illinois’ subsidiary.
And, like many companies trying to get legislation passed in Springfield, AT&T employed a long roster of Madigan-connected lobbyists in the run-up to the votes.
After a protracted fight, the landline bill passed during the final hours of the spring legislative session. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed the legislation, but the Democrat-led General Assembly overrode him.
Among the lobbyists enlisted to get the bill over the hump was Cullen, one of a group of former Madigan staffers who’d capitalized on access to the speaker. Cullen lobbies for a string of notable clients, from Pepsico to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
A onetime ComEd lobbyist, Cullen’s major utility client is now Ameren, the dominant power company in downstate Illinois.
Cullen was also one of five current and former utility lobbyists identified by the Tribune in 2019 who had written checks to Kevin Quinn, a one-time ranking Madigan aide who the speaker ousted over alleged sexual harassment of a Democratic campaign worker.
According to emails the Tribune disclosed in 2018, the effort to rally financial support for Quinn was orchestrated by McClain, a Quincy Democrat and former lobbyist who served on Madigan’s legislative leadership team in the early 1980s and is now facing charges in the ComEd probe.
While Acevedo was never a part of Madigan’s inner circle, the Chicago Democrat was considered a Madigan ally.
In 2020, Acevedo, a former Chicago police officer, told the Tribune he had worked as a consultant paid by John Bradley, a former House Democrat from Marion who was a contract lobbyist for ComEd until November 2019. Acevedo said then that he did not lobby for ComEd, but he said he was a consultant for Bradley about ComEd issues.
Acevedo also said he previously worked as a consultant in a similar role for lobbyist Shaw Decremer, a former Democratic House staffer and campaign operative ousted from the speaker’s political organization following complaints that he was abusive.
Details of Acevedo’s involvement in the ComEd scandal trickled out in hearings by a special House committee in 2020 tasked with investigating Madigan’s role with the power company after he was named “Public Official A” in federal court documents.
Among the records ComEd turned over to committee was a January 2017 email in which McClain told Fidel Marquez, then vice president of governmental affairs for ComEd, about a “frank conversation” he’d had with Acevedo about his “shortcomings” and an unflattering list of directives, including to “watch the booze.”
Marquez, who cooperated with investigators and recorded conversations with McClain and others for the FBI, pleaded guilty in 2020 to bribery and is awaiting sentencing.
The McClain email went on to note whom Acevedo would be allowed to lobby, even though he was not registered as a ComEd lobbyist.
At the end of his email, McClain thanked Marquez for letting him talk to Acevedo first and told Marquez, “You may now talk to him.”
And in a reference he commonly used for Madigan, McClain wrote: “I will tell our Friend to proceed.”
