This guy was once a superstar on Wall Street. He made billions as the founder of Chesapeake Energy. His hubris led him to borrow tens of millions on margin to buy his own stock. When oil prices collapsed in 2008/2009, the margin calls wiped him out. He ended up leaving the company he founded in disgrace. They are headed towards bankruptcy, as he loaded the company up with debt to buy shale properties. Yesterday he gets indicted for rigging bids for land purchases. He decides he isn’t going to spend his final days in prison, so he accelerates his vehicle into a bridge abutment and commits suicide. It can’t be proven, so his family probably gets a huge life insurance payment.
Aubrey McClendon, the co-founder of Chesapeake Energy Corp (CHK.N) who led it to become one of the world’s biggest natural gas producers before he was tarred by federal anti-trust charges, died on Wednesday in a car accident in Oklahoma City, police said. He was 56.
McClendon died one day after the U.S. Department of Justice indicted him for allegedly violating antitrust laws by colluding to rig bids for oil and gas acreage while he was at Chesapeake, which has been a central player in the U.S. fracking revolution of the past decade. He denied the charges.
McClendon resigned from Chesapeake in 2013 after a corporate governance crisis and investor concerns over his heavy spending.
He went on to start American Energy Partners, and with the help of private equity funds, made huge bets on vast oil acreage around the United States and Australia.
Police said they were investigating the cause of the crash that occurred when McClendon was driving his 2013 Chevy Tahoe. Police said the vehicle was so badly burned they were unable to tell if McClendon was wearing his seat belt.
A native of Oklahoma, he attended Duke University before starting Chesapeake with his friend Tom Ward, who went on to lead SandRidge Energy Inc (SDOC.PK) for a time.
“Chesapeake is deeply saddened by the news that we have heard today and our thoughts and prayers are with the McClendon family during this difficult time,” a Chesapeake spokesman said in a statement.
So solly; you should have left that enormous greed at the door.
Excuse my cold hearted indifference to the death of this piece of ratshit, but what makes him any better than the feral dogs that prey on innocent people for far less money? The fact that they play at the five dollar minimum table and he plays at the one thousand dollar minimum table? Crooked is as crooked does. And the wheels keep on turn’in…Later, Aubrey.
Crooked right up to the end, with the life insurance scam. Couldn’t face the music, the pussy.
Well, that didn’t take long.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/police-mans-suicide-attempt-caused-crash-that-killed-couple/
Local CEO pulled the same stunt up here. He lived, young couple and their unborn child died instead.
Silkwood
After just reading New Confessions of an Economic Hitman, I’d say that it was a 99.89% chance this was less an accident and more of an on purpose-ent. Wonder if the device used was paid for by tax dollars or by a private company funded by tax dollars.
Po’boy @ 7:07 pm:
He probably knew where the bodies were buried.
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Uh . . . why would he feel sure that the airbag wouldn’t save him?
He should have ducked.
Most life insurance policies only preclude paying out for suicide for two years. After that you don’t even have to try to make it look like an accident. There was a small scale money manager here in MN who started running a small scale Madoff- type Ponzi scheme. He had a sister who was mentally disabled and he wanted to guarantee her a high investment return, but over time it, of course, got out of hand. He owed his clients about $3 mil, as I recall. He killed himself with the instruction that his investors be made whole. Almost all of the insurance money went to his investors.
>>>”Uh . . . why would he feel sure that the airbag wouldn’t save him?”
Hit that concrete abutment at a high enough speed and the airbag will feel like concrete…he was trapped in the mangled vehicle and it caught fire.
I like how these epic crashes invariably burst into flame, nice touch there, pyric.
I swear. Greed is contagious. I golfed with this asshole once. I never trusted him even then and I counted all of his “swings” cuz’ money was involved.
Fuckin’ assholes.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-07-03/business/chi-wasendorf-peregrine-20130703_1_peregrine-financial-group-russell-wasendorf-sr-failed-futures-brokerage
And yes, I did kick his ass because I have a three handicap and was second man varsity in high school. Plus, I just keep getting better in my old age. That’s all I got to say about that…
Welcome back Cynical30. I haven’t seen you post in forever.
You cant bid-rig alone. You need someone to rig it with, or it aint rigged. I bet a few guys let out a sigh of relief that their names wont come up at his trial.
My FF pal in OKC said the accident was close to her house and that she was surprised that it didn’t burn down half of Edmond (just north of OKC) the fire was so big. She said the conspiracy theories are rampant… I asked her to send me something interesting off the blogosphere.
Others are analyzing the scene and thinking maybe the guy isn’t
really dead. Someone else was in that car. Aubrey is sipping a
tropical cocktail. Who knows?
The fire and all is WAY too convenient. I don’t think this is a simple suicide. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the body recovered isn’t really McClendon either. If it really was him, I suspect he was “suicided.”