More than seven years after he agreed to become an FBI mole, former ComEd executive Fidel Marquez was sentenced to two years of probation Thursday for his role in a massive bribery conspiracy to win the influence of then-House Speaker Michael Madigan by funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to do-nothing subcontractors.
“I wish that I could order you to lecture on public corruption,” U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland told Marquez near the end of a 90-minute hearing.
Marquez, 64, who rose from humble beginnings to become ComEd’s senior vice president of external affairs, apologized to the court before the sentence was handed down.
“I sincerely regret my actions,” he said, leaning both arms against the lectern and reading from notes. “I am ashamed. I did not like what was taking place, but I could have tried to do more, and I didn’t.”
In addition to the term of probation, Rowland handed Marquez a $50,000 fine, but opted not to order him to do 300 hours of community service as requested by the government.
Marquez’s sentencing was one of the final loose ends in a historic investigation that exposed corruption at the highest levels of Illinois government and brought down Madigan, the then-leader of the Illinois Democratic Party and undisputedly the most powerful politician in the state.
Among the attendees in court Thursday was Amarjeet Bhachu, the former head of the U.S. attorney’s office Public Corruption Section and lead prosecutor on the Madigan investigation. Before the hearing began, Bhachu, who retired shortly after Madigan’s conviction last year, walked over to Marquez at the defense table and greeted him with a warm handshake.
Marquez began working with the FBI in early 2019, after agents confronted him at his mother’s home and played wiretapped phone calls of him that they said showed him committing crimes.
He went on to make multiple undercover recordings of his own, both audio and video, that provided the backbone for the biggest single allegation in the indictment against Madigan: that the speaker, who at the time was the head of the Illinois Democratic Party and widely regarded as the most powerful politician in the state, supported ComEd-friendly legislation in exchange for a stream of benefits from the utility.
Marquez pleaded guilty in 2020 to conspiracy to commit bribery. In exchange for his truthful testimony, prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of probation instead of prison time.
In a sentencing memo earlier this year, Marquez’s attorneys said the bribery scheme was already underway when Marquez was roped into it, and that his nearly immediate agreement to cooperate with the FBI was “likely far in excess of what they actually thought would happen.”
“The agents’ success in obtaining Fidel’s help was not for the reasons they expected,” attorney Christopher Niewoehner wrote. “For Fidel was motivated not because he thought he needed to save himself from criminal jeopardy – the typical reason that people cooperate with the FBI – but because he thought that what Madigan was asking of ComEd was wrong, and he thought he could help stop it.”
Niewoehner wrote that to Marquez, “the demands from Madigan were a one-way street,” with the speaker, through McClain, always initiating the requests “for a favor for some Madigan connection.”
“No one at ComEd affirmatively proposed hiring Madigan’s people. It was not something that ComEd wanted to do – it was essentially a necessary evil from Fidel’s perspective,” Niewoehner wrote. “As Fidel understood it, ComEd acquiesced in Madigan’s demands because the company could be punished if it did not.”
Niewoehner also asked Rowland to consider all of of the good qualities Marquez had shown throughout his life, from charitable works to always helping out family and friends.
“Through hard work, dedication, and skill, Fidel has risen from humble beginnings to professional success,” Niewoehner wrote. “But more importantly to him, Fidel has always helped others as he rose.”
Madigan, who had a record run as speaker and served for years as the leader of the state Democratic Party, was convicted by a jury a year ago on bribery conspiracy and other corruption charges. The jury found him guilty on 10 of 23 counts, including a multipronged scheme to accept and solicit payments from Commonwealth Edison to Madigan associates for do-nothing subcontracts.
Madigan also was convicted on six out of seven counts — including wire fraud and Travel Act violations — regarding a plan to get then-Chicago Ald. Daniel Solis, who testified at length in the trial, appointed to a state board.
The jury acquitted Madigan of several other schemes alleged in the indictment and deadlocked on other counts, including the overarching racketeering charge.
The same jury deadlocked on all counts involving his co-defendant, longtime confidant Michael McClain, and prosecutors later opted not to retry McClain and dropped the charges.
Marquez was also a star witness in the parallel “ComEd Four” bribery case, which ended in 2023 with the convictions of McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, former top internal ComEd lobbyist John Hooker, and Jay Doherty, a ComEd consultant and the former head of the City Club of Chicago. They are all currently serving prison sentences.
Madigan, 83, entered the medium-security federal facility near Morgantown, West Virginia, on Oct. 13 to begin serving his 7 1/2-year sentence.
Meanwhile, Madigan’s appeal of his conviction is pending before the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The government’s response brief is due in January, and arguments should be scheduled sometime in early 2026.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
