Yet more recently, Chesapeake cooperated with the U.S. Department of Justice to help bring the McCledon indictment.
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McClendon, who was killed in a vehicle wreck Wednesday morning, was indicted Tuesday for allegedly colluding with then-SandRidge Energy CEO Tom Ward to keep oil and gas bid prices at low levels from 2007 to 2012.
However, McClendon, a co-founder of Chesapeake, who served at the helm of the company as its chairman and chief executive officer, denied the charges, Reuters reported.
Aubrey McClendon, 56, was driving a Chevrolet Tahoe when he hit a wall, said Captain Paco Balderrama police in Oklahoma, where the accident took place. A full investigation into the accident could take up to two weeks. Yet Oklahoma City police said he had time avoid crashing into an embankment.
Condolences continue to pour in from the business community, including American Energy Partners, which was the latest energy company founded by Aubrey McClendon.
The federal indictment said he “put company profits ahead of the interests of leaseholders entitled to competitive bids for oil and gas rights on their land” in northwest Oklahoma.
Sandridge previously disclosed in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it was the subject of a grand jury investigation into violations of federal antitrust law and that it is cooperating with federal investigators.
“The charge that has been filed against me today is wrong and unprecedented”, McClendon said in a statement.
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“A rapacious energy baron is glorified by the center of power and finance as a visionary”, Hauter called McClendon in a Facebook post Wednesday, prior to learning about the oil tycoon’s death. No individual is flawless, but his impact on American energy will be long-lasting, ‘ said fellow oilman T. Boone Pickens in a New York Times tribute to Mr McClendon. He was charismatic and a true American entrepreneur. Until his death, McClendon was the chairman and chief executive of the American Energy. They eventually grew Chesapeake into one of the largest independent producers of natural gas in the United States.
