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Violation Tracker Individual Record

Company: AT&T Illinois
Current Parent Company: AT&T
Parent at the Time of the Penalty Announcement:  subscribe to see this data field
Penalty: $23,000,000
Year: 2022
Date: October 14, 2022
Offense Group: competition-related offenses
Primary Offense: kickbacks and bribery
Violation Description: Illinois Bell Telephone Company, LLC, which does business as AT&T Illinois, agreed to pay $23 million to resolve a federal criminal investigation into alleged misconduct involving the company's efforts to unlawfully influence former Illinois Speaker of the House Michael J. Madigan. AT&T Illinois admitted that in 2017 it arranged for an ally of Madigan to indirectly receive $22,500 in payments from the company. The company paid the money through an intermediary - a lobbying firm that performed services for AT&T Illinois. Although AT&T Illinois employees formulated a pretextual assignment for Madigan's ally to disguise why the ally was being paid, the ally performed no actual work for AT&T Illinois and the company made no effort to ensure any work was performed. AT&T Illinois acknowledged in the agreement that AT&T Illinois's then-president used an interstate facility to facilitate Madigan's indirect receipt of a thing of value, namely the payments made to his ally, in exchange for Madigan's vote and influence over a bill.
Level of Government: federal
Action Type: agency action
Agency: U.S. Attorney-Northern District of Illinois
Civil or Criminal Case: criminal
Prosecution Agreement: deferred prosecution agreement
Facility State: Illinois
HQ Country of Current Parent: USA
HQ State of Current Parent: Texas
Ownership Structure of Current Parent: publicly traded
Major Industry of Current Parent: telecommunications
Specific Industry of Current Parent: telecommunications
Source of Data: (click here)
Source Notes: If an online information source is not working, check the Violation Tracker Data Sources page for an updated link.
Current parent company note: Parent-subsidiary relationship is current as of the most recent revision listed in the Update Log.