Who didn't want this guy to talk?
"Aubrey McClendon, the cofounder and former chief executive officer of Chesapeake Energy Corp., was indicted on charges that he conspired to rig bids for the purchase of oil and natural gas leases in northwest Oklahoma, the US Justice Department said in a statement. McClendon is accused of orchestrating a scheme between two “large oil and gas companies” to not bid against each other for leases. From December 2007 to March 2012, the conspirators decided ahead of time who would win the leases and the winning bidder would then allocate an interest in the leases to the other company, the government said. The companies, which aren’t defendants in the case, are identified in the indictment as Company A and Company B. During his almost quarter-century at the helm of Chesapeake, the 56-year-old McClendon embraced drilling and fracking innovations that unleashed the shale revolution ignored by the world’s biggest energy producers, building the company into what was for a time the largest US source of gas."
"Former gas executive dies in crash a day after being indicted" by Clifford Krauss New York Times March 03, 2016
HOUSTON — Aubrey McClendon, the swashbuckling energy industry innovator who pioneered the nation’s shale revolution, died in a car crash on Wednesday, a day after he was indicted on federal bid-rigging charges of conspiring to suppress prices paid for oil and natural gas leases. He was 56.
The Oklahoma City police said the car McClendon was driving hit the wall of a bridge at high speed in a remote part of Oklahoma City. He was to appear in court later in the day.
Even in a business known for bigger-than-life executives, McClendon was a mythical character. He took a tiny oil company, Chesapeake Energy, which he cofounded in 1989, and made it into the second-biggest gas producer in the United States. Only Exxon Mobil produces more.
Under his leadership, Chesapeake was a darling of Wall Street as he acquired leases across the country and liberally employed hydraulic fracturing to unlock vast amounts of natural gas in Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, 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.
I hope they had a Holly Jolly Christmas this year.
The company’s problems were compounded by revelations that 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 for 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, but on Wednesday, the oil and gas world was in a state of shock.
His corporate pursuits also reflected McClendon’s eclectic interests. As the company grew, he developed a corporate campus that made it look more like an Ivy League school than a piece of the oil patch, with a cafeteria that served international fare and a gymnasium outfitted like a spa.
He dabbled in politics and personally appeared in television commercials promoting the benefits of natural gas, trying to replace coal burning for power. He unsuccessfully pushed for natural gas-fueled cars.
McClendon had interests that ranged far and wide, from his part ownerships of the Oklahoma City Thunder professional basketball team to a winery in Bordeaux.
That is where my print copy ended.
The web version added this:
He bragged about his $12 million antique map collection.
While the indictment did not identify the two companies, most energy experts believe they are Chesapeake and SandRidge Energy, also based in Oklahoma City and led by a former partner of McClendon. The two companies had previously disclosed in regulatory documents that they were being investigated by the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. SandRidge has yet to comment on the indictment, while Chesapeake said it was cooperating with the investigation and did not expect to face criminal penalties.
According to the Antitrust Division, the companies secretly decided who would win leases, and the winning bidder allotted an interest in the leases to the other company. The indictment said that McClendon instructed his subordinates to conspire with others from the second company to allocate leases among themselves.
At first McClendon and his lawyers expressed indignant disagreement with the indictment, although McClendon did not expressly deny that there were discussions with a competitor.
“The charge that has been filed against me today is wrong and unprecedented,” McClendon said in statement released Tuesday night. “I have been singled out as the only person in the oil and gas industry in over 110 years since the Sherman Act became law to have been accused of this crime in relation to joint bidding on leasehold.”
After his ouster from Chesapeake in 2013, McClendon quickly turned his attention to his next venture, cofounding American Energy Partners, a private oil company. His goal was to take the fracking revolution worldwide.
And now he is long dead, cui bono?
--more--"
I'm reminded of the old song:
♫Who can take a gusher
And make it into crude?
Make it into gasoline and
Bring it right to you
The oil man can, the oil man can
Who will fill your tank up
And keep you warm at night?
Brighten up your home and
Make everything all right
The oil man can, the oil man can♫
Related:
"Federal authorities sought Thursday to drop a criminal indictment of bid rigging against Oklahoma energy tycoon Aubrey McClendon, who died in a fiery crash just hours after the indictment was announced. Meanwhile, attorneys for a northwest Oklahoma landowner filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday against McClendon’s former company, Chesapeake Energy, alleging a conspiracy that involved another energy executive, ex-Sandridge Energy chief executive Tom Ward. The US Department of Justice’s Chicago-based antitrust division alleged in the indictment against McClendon that he and unnamed coconspirators orchestrated the conspiracy to rig bids for landowner leases in northwest Oklahoma. Ward, a longtime friend of McClendon’s who cofounded Chesapeake in the 1980s, was the CEO of Sandridge at the time the conspiracy was alleged to have occurred."
Also see:
Oil executive McClendon’s car hit wall at 78 miles per hour in fatal Okla. crash
He "tapped" on the brakes but didn't slam on them.
Indicted energy magnate’s fiery death was an accident
Of course.
Was This Dead Oil Exec’s Car Hacked? - You ever notice with stories like this, investigators never even consider the possibility of foul play?
That tells you that powerful forces were behind the "accident," and not even the bikes are safe.
