The NBA and Oklahoma City Thunder are mourning the death of Aubrey McClendon, the former energy executive and part owner of the Thunder who died in a auto crash. McClendon was alone in his 2013 Chevy Tahoe when it sped into an embankment along a remote two-lane road in Oklahoma City, where it burst into flames, a police spokesman said.
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Aubrey McClendon, the former CEO of Chesapeake Energy, died in a auto crash Wednesday, a day after he was indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiring to rig bids for oil and natural gas leases. The Department of Justice had alleged that between December 2007 and March 2012 the victor of oil and natural gas bids in Oklahoma was pre-fixed and McClendon was instrumental in instructing his subordinates to execute the understanding through withdrawing bids for leases or some other routes.
McClendon resigned as CEO in 2013 and founded his own company, American Energy Partners, where was now serving.
If McClendon had been found guilty on this charge, he would have faced a fine of up to $1 million and a maximum of 10 years in prison. McClendon was one of the foremost leaders of a US energy boom that lifted output to the highest levels in years, reduced reliance on foreign oil and mobilized new pools of investment capital for wildcat drillers.
Aubrey McClendon, 56 was driving alone when the vehicle crash happened.
It was a risky strategy, and as early as 2008, as the stock market plunged, McClendon was forced to sell more than 31 million Chesapeake shares worth $569 million to cover margin calls from lenders, according to Reuters.
“He was charismatic and a true American entrepreneur”, Pickens said in a statement.
“His actions put company profits ahead of the interests of leaseholders entitled to competitive bids”, said Bill Baer, assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. Natural gas prices plummeted along with all the new drilling by Chesapeake and its peers, reducing revenues for the company and making the debt harder to repay. He is considered one of the fathers of the USA fracking industry. “I will fight to prove my innocence and to clear my name”.
When McClendon began quietly acquiring leases around 2005, most energy analysts thought the United States faced a future of gas shortages.
At the time of his death, he was chairman and chief executive of American Energy Partners, an investor in oil and gas production operations. The team was renamed the Oklahoma City Thunder and plays in Chesapeake Energy Arena. “Aubrey’s tremendous leadership, vision and passion for the energy industry had an impact on the community, the country and the world”.
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McClendon is survived by his wife, Kathleen, two sons, a daughter and a grandchild.
