Juan Ochoa never collected the $78,000 he was promised for serving on Commonwealth Edison's board.
Ochoa, without ceremony or mention, left ComEd’s board before April 3 when it filed its annual proxy with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. In the document, ComEd made no mention of his departure or the reasons for it. He simply wasn’t listed among the director nominated for re-election.
Ochoa surfaced as a focal point of the U.S. Attorney’s investigation of ComEd and its ties to political corruption in Illinois. In the statement of facts the prosecutor’s office included along with a deferred charge of bribery against the utility, it outlined a campaign of pressure orchestrated by Michael McClain, House Speaker Michael Madigan’s longtime ally and confidante, to place Ochoa on ComEd’s board.
The campaign, which began in early 2017, culminated in Ochoa’s appointment in April 2019, according to the document. That’s when ComEd first reported in its proxy that Ochoa was on the board, again without comment.
As it turned out, Ochoa was off the board well before he could collect his full $78,000. He earned $53,692 before leaving, according to ComEd's proxy. Ochoa attended a total of three board meetings before departing, the proxy said.
Ochoa is politically connected, having run the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority from 2007 until 2010.
Asked when Ochoa left the board and why, a ComEd spokesman declined to comment. Ochoa didn’t immediately respond to a voicemail and a LinkedIn message.
Former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, who retired abruptly from Exelon last fall as the investigation heated up, was the individual McClain pressured to help Ochoa, according to the federal document. Facing “internal opposition,” she asked McClain at one point if it would suffice to find Ochoa something else that paid $78,000 a year, the amount ComEd pays its directors. She was told to “keep pressing.”
Ochoa finally was named to the board in April 2019, and just one month later federal investigators were raiding the homes and offices of McClain and others as the ComEd probe launched in earnest.
Madigan has denied any misconduct and has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
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Commonwealth Edison board member Juan Ochoa departed - Crain's Chicago Business
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