Exelon's ComEd Unit To Pay $200 Mln To Settle Bribery Probe

(RTTNews) - Commonwealth Edison Co. or ComEd, a subsidiary of Exelon Corp. (EXC), has agreed to pay $200 million to settle a federal criminal investigation into a years-long bribery scheme, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago said in a statement on Friday.

ComEd admitted that its efforts to influence and reward the high-level elected official began in or around 2011 and continued through in or around 2019.

The company also admitted that it arranged for jobs and vendor subcontracts for Public Official A's political allies and workers even in instances where those people performed little or no work that they were purportedly hired by ComEd to perform.

The U.S. Attorney's Office today filed a one-count criminal information in U.S. District Court in Chicago charging ComEd with bribery.

As per the agreement, the government will defer prosecution on the charge for three years and then seek to dismiss it if ComEd abides by certain conditions, including continuing to cooperate with ongoing investigations of individuals or other entities related to the conduct described in the bribery charge.

As part of its remediation, Exelon implemented four new mandatory policies that apply to employees who interact with public officials.

The policies also prohibit subcontracting of third-party lobbyists and political consultants, and hiring of such firms includes oversight from the company's ethics and compliance team, led by David Glockner, Exelon's executive vice president of Compliance and Audit.