AT&T Illinois to Pay $23 Million for Unlawfully Influencing Illinois Speaker

AT&T Illinois agreed to pay $23 million to resolve a federal criminal investigation over efforts to “unlawfully influence” former Illinois Speaker of the House Michael Madigan (D), said a DOJ release and deferred prosecution agreement released Friday. Under the agreement, AT&T “admitted it arranged for payments to be made to an ally of Madigan to influence and reward Madigan’s efforts” to get carrier of last resort legislation passed in the Illinois General Assembly in 2017. The legislation “provided one step needed to terminate AT&T Illinois’ costly obligation to provide landline telephone services to all Illinois residents,” the agreement said. DOJ will defer prosecution on the charge of “use of an interstate facility in order to promote and facilitate unlawful activity, namely legislative misconduct” for two years and then dismiss it as long as AT&T Illinois and other AT&T subsidiaries obey the conditions of the agreement, which include a compliance plan and continuing to cooperate with investigations related to the misconduct. The money goes to the federal Crime Victims Fund, the release said. According to the filing, AT&T paid thousands of dollars per month to a political ally of Madigan’s with the expectation that Madigan would get the legislation passed in return.