Ex-AT&T Illinois head could see bribery charges dismissed under
agreement with feds
[October 15, 2025]
By Hannah Meisel
CHICAGO — Former AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza, who had been
accused of bribing then-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan in
exchange for the 2017 passage of legislation backed by the telecom
giant, is poised to see his charges dropped under an agreement with
federal prosecutors.
La Schiazza on Tuesday entered into a deferred prosecution agreement
with the government that includes a $200,000 fine and his admission that
he intended to bribe Madigan via a contract for the powerful speaker’s
political ally.
The agreement cancels the retired executive’s retrial, which was set for
January. But if La Schiazza commits any crimes or obtains any firearms
within a year, it will be void.
U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman, who presided over La Schiazza’s
September 2024 trial that ended in a hung jury, expressed mild amazement
at the defendant’s deal during Tuesday’s hearing.
“This is a very generous agreement, I have to say,” Gettleman told La
Schiazza, who appeared in court via videoconference from his home in
Rhode Island. “I think it’s surprisingly generous.”
Nearly five months after Gettleman was forced to declare a mistrial
after La Schiazza’s jury deadlocked, a separate jury weighing Madigan’s
corruption trial also hung on the single AT&T-related charge in the
former speaker’s case.
Gettleman declined to dismiss La Schiazza’s charges in December, but
that was before a second jury expressed doubts about the feds’ AT&T
allegations. The former telecom executive’s retrial was initially
scheduled for June, but it was later delayed to January.
La Schiazza was charged with orchestrating a bribery scheme in which
AT&T agreed to indirectly pay recently retired state Rep. Eddie Acevedo
$22,500 over a nine-month period in 2017 after he asked Madigan to help
him find lobbying work. While Acevedo collected a monthly check via
former top Madigan staffer-turned-AT&T contract lobbyist Tom Cullen, the
former lawmaker did no work for the company.
In exchange, the feds alleged Madigan allowed legislation that AT&T had
been pushing for years to pass through the Illinois House. It eventually
saved the company hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
Acevedo was also one of five Madigan allies alleged to have done little
to no work for electric utility Commonwealth Edison in a more
wide-ranging and longer-lasting bribery scheme involving several ComEd-backed
laws that proved lucrative to the company.
La Schiazza’s deferred prosecution agreement comes exactly three years
after AT&T inked a similar deal with the government requiring the
company to pay a $23 million fine admitting it sought to influence
Madigan. The single charge against AT&T was dismissed in January.
On Tuesday, Gettleman told La Schiazza that if he abides by the
conditions in his deferred prosecution agreement, the government would
move to dismiss the charges in a year.
“But I am under no obligation to grant that motion,” the judge said.
“You understand that sir? Even if I sign this agreement today.”
“I was unaware of that but I do understand what you just said,” La
Schiazza replied.
Alleged scheme
In 2017, Illinois was one of only two states that still had 1930s-era
laws on the books obligating AT&T to maintain its aging copper landline
system. As landline customers began dropping precipitously, the costs to
maintain the system kept increasing. The company wanted to be able to
instead invest that money in newer technologies like broadband and
wireless, as its competitors were free to do.
Throughout his trial, attorneys for La Schiazza maintained AT&T’s
government affairs team had spent years on a sophisticated nationwide
lobbying strategy and that AT&T Illinois executives got an initial
legislative win in 2015, long before Acevedo’s contract.
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Former AT&T Illinois president Paul La Schiazza exits the Dirksen
Federal Courthouse in Chicago in September 2024 after jury selection
in his bribery trial, which ultimately ended in a hung jury.
(Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams)
But prosecutors emphasized La Schiazza’s verbiage in emails sent to his
government affairs team. In a February 2017 note, La Schiazza informed
colleagues he’d just heard from Springfield lobbyist Mike McClain, who
had good news: Madigan assigned AT&T’s legislation to McClain as a
“special project.”
“Game on,” La Schiazza wrote.
Left out of the email was McClain’s request two days before that to one
of La Schiazza’s direct reports asking whether there was “even a small
contract” at AT&T for Acevedo.
In an email to AT&T’s internal lobbyists the next month directing them
to hire Acevedo, La Schiazza wrote: “We did get the GO order … Gotta
love it!” Prosecutors said the “GO order” was from Madigan via McClain.
In another email, La Schiazza approved of paying Acevedo through a
subcontract “as long as you are sure we will get credit and the box
checked,” which prosecutors alleged was further proof of a bribery
agreement.
Complicating testimony
But the government’s narrative was challenged by testimony from former
AT&T Illinois lobbyist Steve Selcke, who denied Acevedo’s contract was a
bribe and that it had anything to do with AT&T’s legislation. After
Selcke took the stand under an immunity agreement from the feds during
La Schiazza’s trial, prosecutors dropped him from their witness list in
Madigan’s trial, leaving defense lawyers free to call him.
Selcke doubled down on his earlier testimony, though he did acknowledge
Acevedo’s contract had “some degree of tangential impact because we
didn’t want to rock the boat with the speaker’s office.” On
cross-examination, Selcke read from a 2016 email he’d written to
colleagues indicating McClain had previously thrown his weight to force
AT&T to renew contracts with Madigan-connected lobbyists with whom the
company wanted to cut ties. In the email, Selcke characterized McClain’s
habit of interference as getting “folks crammed back down our throats.”
The feds’ presentation of AT&T-related evidence in Madigan’s trial also
included calling Acevedo himself, over the objections of his attorney.
Acevedo, who had to lean on a walker for support during his time in
Madigan’s courtroom, has developed dementia in recent years and was
confused several times during his time on the witness stand.
Acevedo’s diminished appearance in front of the jury was a far cry from
the person described during testimony as being so insulted by AT&T’s
offer of a $2,500 per month contract that he later called Cullen to say,
“F— AT&T, they can kiss my ass.” He later accepted the arrangement.
Acevedo and both of his sons, who also contracted with AT&T, all served
short prison sentences for tax evasion related to their lobbying
activities discovered during the feds’ sprawling investigation into
Madigan.
During testimony, Acevedo said he “never asked anybody for a no-show
job,” even contending he did work for AT&T, though other witnesses could
not corroborate that claim. FBI call records showed no contact between
Acevedo and La Schiazza during the nine months the former lawmaker was
getting paid.
During Madigan’s trial, former top lawyers in the speaker’s office
testified that their former boss was still skeptical of utilities even
as he assigned them to negotiate legislation introduced by AT&T and
ComEd. The ex-aides all noted they refused to give the utilities
everything they wanted and testified that Madigan never pushed for the
legislation himself.
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