The following are separate news releases from the Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Illinois and also Commonwealth Edison. RetailEnergyX.com disclaims any responsibility for the content, data, characterizations or allegations contained in the release below, and makes no averment as to its accuracy or statements

News Release from US Dept. Of Justice:

Department of Justice; U.S. Attorney’s Office; Northern District of Illinois

Commonwealth Edison Agrees to Pay $200 Million to Resolve Federal Criminal Investigation Into Bribery Scheme

ComEd Admits Arranging Jobs and Contracts for Political Allies of High-Level State of Illinois Official

CHICAGO — Commonwealth Edison Company (“ComEd”), the largest electric utility in Illinois, has agreed to pay $200 million to resolve a federal criminal investigation into a years-long bribery scheme, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago announced today.

The criminal investigation of ComEd is being resolved with a deferred prosecution agreement under which ComEd admitted it arranged jobs, vendor subcontracts, and monetary payments associated with those jobs and subcontracts, for various associates of a high-level elected official for the state of Illinois, to influence and reward the official’s efforts to assist ComEd with respect to legislation concerning ComEd and its business.  The U.S. Attorney’s Office today filed a one-count criminal information in U.S. District Court in Chicago charging ComEd with bribery.  Under the agreement, the government will defer prosecution on the charge for three years and then seek to dismiss it if ComEd abides by certain conditions, including continuing to cooperate with ongoing investigations of individuals or other entities related to the conduct described in the bribery charge.

The deferred prosecution agreement, which is subject to approval by the U.S. District Court, requires ComEd to pay a $200 million fine.  A court date for the approval hearing has not yet been scheduled.

The bribery charge and deferred prosecution agreement were announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Emmerson Buie, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the FBI; and Kathy A. Enstrom, Special Agent-in-Charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division in Chicago.  The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amarjeet S. Bhachu, Diane MacArthur, Timothy J. Chapman, Sarah E. Streicker, Matthew L. Kutcher, and Michelle Kramer.

In addition to the monetary penalty and obligation to continue cooperating with government investigations, ComEd’s obligations under the deferred prosecution agreement include enhancing its compliance program and providing annual reports to the government regarding remediation and implementation of its compliance measures.  If ComEd fails to completely perform or fulfill each of its obligations under the agreement during the three-year term, the U.S. Attorney’s Office can initiate prosecution of the charged offense.

ComEd’s admissions regarding the charged conduct are contained in a Statement of Facts attached to the deferred prosecution agreement.  ComEd admitted that its efforts to influence and reward the high-level elected official – identified in the Statement of Facts as “Public Official A” – began in or around 2011 and continued through in or around 2019.  During that time, the Illinois General Assembly considered bills and passed legislation that had a substantial impact on ComEd’s operations and profitability, including legislation that affected the regulatory process used to determine the electricity rates ComEd charged its customers.  Public Official A controlled what measures were called for a vote in the Illinois House of Representatives and exerted substantial influence over fellow lawmakers concerning legislation affecting ComEd.  The company admitted that it arranged for jobs and vendor subcontracts for Public Official A’s political allies and workers even in instances where those people performed little or no work that they were purportedly hired by ComEd to perform. 

In addition to the jobs and contracts, ComEd further admitted that it undertook other efforts to influence and reward Public Official A, including by appointing an individual to ComEd’s Board of Directors at the request of Public Official A; retaining a particular law firm at the request of Public Official A; and accepting into the company’s internship program a certain amount of students who resided in the Chicago ward where Public Official A was associated.

To date, ComEd has provided substantial cooperation with the federal investigations.  Per the terms of the agreement, the company will continue to provide such cooperation until all investigations and prosecutions arising out of the charged conduct are concluded.

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News release from ComEd:

ComEd Reaches Agreement to Resolve Justice Department Investigation

ComEd resolves previously disclosed matter related to historical lobbying practices and strengthens lobbying and compliance controls

July 17, 2020 09:14 AM Eastern Daylight Time

CHICAGO--Exelon Corp. and its ComEd subsidiary today announced that ComEd has entered into an agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois to resolve the previously disclosed investigation into ComEd’s historical lobbying practices in Illinois. The resolution ends the investigation into ComEd by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Exelon CEO Christopher M. Crane said, “We are committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity and ethical behavior. In the past, some of ComEd’s lobbying practices and interactions with public officials did not live up to that commitment. When we learned about the inappropriate conduct, we acted swiftly to investigate. We concluded from the investigation that a small number of senior ComEd employees and outside contractors orchestrated this misconduct, and they no longer work for the company. Since then, we have taken robust action to aggressively identify and address deficiencies, including enhancing our compliance governance and our lobbying policies to prevent this type of conduct. We apologize for the past conduct that didn’t live up to our own values, and we will ensure this cannot happen again.”

Under the three-year deferred prosecution agreement, ComEd has agreed to make payments totaling $200 million, and has agreed to the government’s filing of a single charge that will be dismissed at the end of the three-year term, provided it abides by all terms of the agreement. The fine will not be recovered in rates or charged to customers. The conduct at issue in the agreement relates only to ComEd, and the agreement does not contain any allegation of misconduct by Exelon or Exelon Generation. The agreement resolves the government’s investigation into both ComEd and Exelon. The related Securities and Exchange Commission investigation and civil lawsuits remain pending.

ComEd fully and substantially cooperated with the U.S. Attorney’s Office from the beginning of the investigation, and since that time, has taken extensive remedial measures. ComEd’s remediation and cooperation efforts were acknowledged specifically by the government in the resolution agreement.

As part of its remediation, Exelon implemented four new mandatory policies that apply to employees who interact with public officials. These policies lay out specific rules, procedures and tracking mechanisms governing 1) interactions with public officials; 2) vetting and monitoring of lobbyists and political consultants; 3) employment referrals or requests from public officials; and 4) vendor referrals or requests from public officials.

The policies also prohibit subcontracting of third-party lobbyists and political consultants, and hiring of such firms includes oversight from the company’s ethics and compliance team, led by David Glockner, Exelon’s executive vice president of Compliance and Audit. Glockner was appointed to his role in March 2020 after having previously served as a senior Securities and Exchange Commission official and chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, among other roles.

In addition, the company is conducting training on the new policies for employees as well as lobbying and political consulting partners. While the misconduct was limited to ComEd, the policies apply across all Exelon subsidiaries in Illinois and all other jurisdictions where Exelon operates, and are available on the company website.

Exelon and its operating companies are dedicated to providing customers and communities with clean, reliable, low-cost energy at the highest levels of service, efficiency and operational performance.

About Exelon Corporation

Exelon Corporation (Nasdaq: EXC) is a Fortune 100 energy company with the largest number of electricity and natural gas customers in the U.S. Exelon does business in 48 states, the District of Columbia and Canada and had 2019 revenue of $34 billion. Exelon serves approximately 10 million customers in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania through its Atlantic City Electric, BGE, ComEd, Delmarva Power, PECO and Pepco subsidiaries. Exelon is one of the largest competitive U.S. power generators, with more than 31,000 megawatts of nuclear, gas, wind, solar and hydroelectric generating capacity comprising one of the nation’s cleanest and lowest-cost power generation fleets. The company’s Constellation business unit provides energy products and services to approximately 2 million residential, public sector and business customers, including three fourths of the Fortune 100. Follow Exelon on Twitter @Exelon.