Former President Barack Obama's campaign manager and Uber executive David Plouffe has been fined $90,000 for illegally lobbying Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel on behalf of the ride-hailing company, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The Chicago Board of Ethics voted 5-0 to find that Plouffe violated city ethics rules by failing to register as a lobbyist after contacting Emanuel to help the company on regulations for picking up travelers at Chicago's two airports.
According to the Tribune, the violation became public after Emanuel in December released hundreds of personal emails in two unrelated lawsuits.
Uber and Plouffe had argued he should only be subject to a $1,000 fine; the board handed down a $90,000 fine because Plouffe didn't register as a lobbyist until April 13, 2016, long after the five-day requirement for registration after he first lobbied Emanuel in November, 2015, the Tribune reported.
Uber was also fined $2,000, according to the Tribune.
"We work hard to ensure our registrations are accurate and up to date," an Uber spokesperson said, Business Insider reports.
"We regret that in this instance we made a mistake and we will comply with the board's assessment."
Plouffe recently left Uber to be head of policy for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's philanthropy initiative, The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
He declined to comment.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.