When Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan promised to help Ald. Danny Solis obtain a state board appointment, he followed up with a request of his own, federal prosecutors alleged last week in his indictment.
They accused Madigan of asking Solis during an August 2018 meeting to help one of the speaker’s relatives obtain business from a Chicago-based community organization.
The relative and the organization are unnamed in the indictment. But the Sun-Times has identified the family member as Andrew R. Madigan, the speaker’s son, and the community-based organization as The Resurrection Project, a Pilsen social service provider that has become an important low-income housing developer on the Southwest Side.
The indictment accuses neither Andrew Madigan nor The Resurrection Project of any wrongdoing, but it suggests that the speaker’s request to Solis to help his son was part of a corrupt exchange of favors between the two politicians.
Madigan, who left office more than a year ago, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to the charges in the 106-page, 22-count indictment that accuses him of a racketeering conspiracy.
His lawyer separately declined to comment when contacted by the Sun-Times about the allegations involving his son. A spokesman for U.S. Attorney John Lausch’s office also declined to comment.
Solis, who was secretly working undercover for the FBI, had promised to use his influence as a City Council member, which included his chairmanship of the City Council Zoning Committee, to help the speaker obtain clients for his law firm.
Andrew Madigan works for Alliant/Mesirow Insurance Services, helping the company develop business. For many years, his work included soliciting insurance work from suburban municipal governments, including Alsip, Lyons, McCook, Schiller Park and Summit.
All of those suburbs have been under investigation by federal authorities. McCook’s former mayor Jeffrey Tobolski, who also served as a commissioner on the Cook County Board, has pleaded guilty to taking more than $250,000 in bribes and extortion payments. He is cooperating with investigators and has yet to be sentenced for his crime.
Raul Raymundo, longtime chief executive officer for The Resurrection Project, confirmed in a telephone interview Wednesday that the organization had been contacted by the FBI about its insurance dealings with Andrew Madigan.
“The FBI did come to us. We did clear that up with them,” he said.
“At no point were we pressured about doing business with anybody,” Raymundo emphasized.
Raymundo declined to discuss the details of the agency’s business with Andrew Madigan and whether he had been approached by either Solis or the speaker on his son’s behalf.
Raymundo said The Resurrection Project had been doing business with Andrew Madigan’s employer before the younger Madigan became involved.
Raymundo later issued a statement: “As the leader of The Resurrection Project I take pride in being transparent, honest and operate with integrity. As you know, our organization has a stellar reputation and long history of serving multiple disadvantaged communities and making a difference in peoples’ lives. Last fall the FBI contacted me about Alderman Solis and Andrew Madigan. In response, we fully and truthfully cooperated with the FBI and will continue to do so; however, we will have no further comment.”
Andrew Madigan, who is in his mid-30s, is the youngest of the speaker’s four children and the only son. Andrew Madigan did not respond to messages.
The reference to the “relative of Madigan” is included in Count Eight of the indictment that was returned against the former speaker on March 2.
That count describes a scheme in which Madigan is alleged over a period of several months in 2018 to have agreed to accept business steered to his private law firm, Madigan & Getzendanner, by Solis in exchange for him assisting the City Council member in getting a state appointment. Solis had told Madigan he was planning to retire from the City Council and wanted a position that would pay him at least $93,926 a year.
At a meeting on Aug. 2, 2018, the indictment alleges Solis explained he was “most interested” in an appointment paying more than $100,000. As described in the indictment, Madigan then told Solis he would go to the future governor, J.B. Pritzker, to seek the appointment.
Solis assured Madigan “there’s a lot of good stuff happening in my ward” and said he would help Madigan with legal business. Madigan then told Solis “just leave it in my hands” in reference to the appointment and asked Solis to help his relative and the relative’s employer obtain business from Organization B, identified by Sun-Times’ sources as The Resurrection Project.
