CHICAGO (WAND) - Four people from Commonweath Edison, including a longtime confidant of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, are charged with conspiring to "corruptly reward and influence" him. 

The U.S. District Court in Chicago on Wednesday returned an indictment against Michael McClain, 73, Anne Pramaggiore, 62, John Hooker, 71, and Jay Doherty, 67. All four face counts of bribery conspiracy, bribery, and willfully falsifying ComEd books and records, per a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Northern District of Illinois. 

McClain served in the Illinois House of Representatives in the 1970s and 1980s, prosecutors said, and was a lobbyist and/or consultant for ComEd after his time in the state legislature. He is considered a confidant of Madigan after the men spent 10 years serving together in the Illinois House starting in 1972. Pramaggiore was ComEd CEO from 2012 to 2018 and later became a senior executive at an Exelon Corp. affiliate. ComEd is a subsidiary of Exelon. 

Hooker was ComEd's executive vice president of legislative and external affairs from 2009 to 2012. After that time, he was a ComEd external lobbyist. Doherty owned Jay D. Doherty & Associates, which was responsible for consulting services for ComEd from about 2011 to 2019. 

Prosecutors said the defendants' efforts to influence "Public Official A," who has been identified as Madigan, started "in or around" 2011 and happened through approximately 2019. The four people charged are accused of conspiring to "corruptly influence and reward Public Official A by arranging for jobs and contracts for Public Official A's political allies and workers, even in instances where those people performed little or no work that ComEd purportedly hired them to perform." 

The defendants are accused of creating and causing the creation of false contracts, invoices, and other books and records meant to disguise the true nature of payments and to get around internal ComEd controls. 

"In addition to the jobs and contracts, the indictment alleges that the defendants undertook other efforts to influence and reward Public Official A, including causing ComEd to retain a particular outside law firm favored by Public Official A and to accept into ComEd’s internship program a certain amount of students who resided in the Chicago ward associated with Public Official A," prosecutors said. "Pramaggiore and McClain also allegedly took steps to have an individual appointed to ComEd’s Board of Directors at the request of Public Official A and McClain, the indictment states."

State Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) issued a statement calling for action from across the political aisle. 

"(McClain) is more than a confidant. This guy has been Madigan's right hand man and kind of the enforcer, or what not, kind of the conduent of all things Madigan for a number of years.

"My immediate reaction is that I am calling on Sue Scherer to join me in call for Speaker Madigan to step down as Speaker. He immediately needs to step aside. This is another blow to the Illinois House of Representatives and Sue Scherer needs to step up."

"This reflects badly on every member of the House and the Democrats have, you know, stalled ethics reforms. They have stonewalled getting together and calling us back into special session in Springfield. The Democrats have the power. They are in the super majority."

Caulkins also had thoughts on whether or not Madigan should resign altogether. 

"That is up to him," Caulkins said. "What he has done will be judged in a court of law but what is alleged, and I think is pretty obvious on the parts of the feds has brought discredit to the House and it is an abuse of power. We have looked at the bill, the lawsuit, or the charges against ComEd and they are very damning." 

WAND News reached out to Scherer for comment and did not immediately hear back.Â