Indicted Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon Dead in Car Crash

[Fuddnik]

Source: NBCNews.com


Indicted Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon Dead in Car Crash

by Jon Schuppe

The founder and former CEO of Chesapeake Energy — a part owner in the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team — died in a car crash Wednesday, just a day after he was indicted by a federal grand jury for trying to rig oil prices.

Aubrey McClendon was behind the wheel of a speeding Chevrolet Tahoe that slammed into a highway embankment in Oklahoma City just after 9 a.m., police said. The car burst into flames.

The cause of the crash seems "pretty cut and dry," Oklahoma City Police Capt. Paco Balderrama said.

"He pretty much drove straight into the wall," Balderrama said, according to NBC affiliate KFOR. "The information out there at the scene is that he went left of center, went through a grassy area right before colliding into the embankment. There was plenty of opportunity for him to correct and get back on the roadway and that didn't occur."

(snip)

Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/indicted-chesapeake-energy-ceo-aubrey-mcclendon-dead-car-crash-n530571

[CBGLuthier]

1. All during Chesapeake's rise I felt they were a bunch of crooks.

They were bullies in their neighborhood forcing businesses out so they could gobble up more and more land.

Oh well, now his family will get to keep whatever he stole since the charges will go away with his death. No fine, no expensive lawyers.

[houston16revival]

2. Thread Previously Posted 3:27PM

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141366285

[malokvale77]

3. Yah, OK...

"pretty cut and dry". Nothing to see here folks.

[Dustlawyer]

4. He must have stolen from some really powerful people, crooks like that usually don't get indicted.

Hell, the Deepwater Horizon big wig on the rig just got acquitted, and he was a mid-level guy! The Head of an energy company would have received deferred adjudication or probation at most!

[markj757]

5. I know this is terrible of me to say....

but I swear I just saw an episode of The Blacklist on Netflix that had a very similar theme. The rich and powerful need to get away after being indicted or something, and they pay a guy to fake their deaths. Now, after saying something so insensitive and over the top, I just have to make amends by saying I feel deeply sorry for his family and his loved ones, and I'm sure that's not the case with his tragic death, but that episode popped into my mind when I heard he died the day after he was indicted.

[Lodestar]

6. Apparently, this indictment happened as a result of a Reuters investigation

Props to them as well as the federal investigators.
Such great news that there are still journalistic investigations going on like this that challenge
the big wigs. Not sure why this guy was suicidal. I think his indictment held a MAXIMUM of 10 years and we'll never know if he would have gotten less. McClendon was ousted from his position a few years ago due to some other questionable behavior.

But Chesapeake and a handful of other companies released so much gas that they glutted the market. Natural gas prices collapsed, pulling down the value of Chesapeake’s shares over the last five years.

The company’s problems were compounded by revelations that Mr. McClendon had taken a personal stake in Chesapeake wells and then used those investments as collateral for up to $1.1 billion in loans, used mostly to pay his share of the cost of drilling those wells.

Those revelations ignited a revolt by Chesapeake’s board, and he was forced to leave the company three years ago.

More here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/03/business/energy-environment/aubrey-mcclendon-56-shale-gas-baron-dies-in-crash-a-day-after-indictment.html?_r=0

[Nihil]

7. "I think his indictment held a MAXIMUM of 10 years"

I hope that the autopsy is scrupulous about confirming the identity of the corpse.

Don't want another Ken Lay now do we?

[MosheFeingold]

8. He was going broke

His new company, AEP, which was actually worse than Chesapeake, bought a lot of properties in 2014 with junk bonds and loans.

He had huge drilling commitments.

It was all going to crater.

I am quite sure he had 25-100 million in life insurance. Now his family will be stable, the charges go away, and legal liability much harder to establish and civil suits uncontrollable against the wife who gets the insurance money as her separate property and not subject to judgment against his estate.

It was a noble death, in an crooked kamikaze sort of way.