Wednesday, March 02, 2016

King Of Fracking/NBA Team Owner Dead In Car Crash Day After Feds Indicted Him


Aubrey McClendon headshot.png
Aubrey Kerr McClendon, 56,  had been described as the world's most reckless billionaire, but in his home state of Oklahoma he was the king of fracking. The former CEO of Chesapeake Energy unleashed the vast natural gas resources under the ground in Oklahoma through the controversial use of fracking shale formations to build a natural gas empire. He died this morning.

McClendon, a descendant of the Kerr-McGee oil fortune, was part of a team of Oklahoma City businessmen who bought the Seattle Sonics and moved the team to Oklahoma where the NBA team became known as the Thunder. McClendon died earlier today as a result of a violent, single-car crash that came just a day after the Justice Department indicted him under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act on charges he rigged bids for the leasing of oil and natural gas rights in Oklahoma. Police haven't confirmed whether the crash of his Chevy Tahoe into a concrete bridge embankment wall was accidental or deliberate.

McClendon maintained his innocence after yesterday's indictment was made public. "Anyone who knows me, my business record and the industry in which I have worked for 35 years, knows that I could not be guilty of violating any antitrust laws," McClendon said in his last public statement Tuesday. McClendon had been forced out of Chesapeake in 2013 amid allegations of self-dealing and an SEC investigation. He started a new company, American Energy Partners, According to Forbes, he borrowed about $10 billion of other people's money to acquire new oil and gas acreage at what turned out to be the peak of the market, leaving his company broke.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

There used to be a big gay queen from Indianapolis who married into that Kerr family. It worked out okay until his wife figured out he was playing for the other team and sent him packing.

Sir Hailstone said...

Wasn't Kerr-McGee the company the movie "Silkwood" was based upon? Of course the name of the company was slightly changed for the movie

Gary R. Welsh said...

Yes, Mike, Silkwood was based on an event at their plutonium plant.

LOL, anon 6:30, I believe the person you are talking about used to live in Lockerbie and was one of a long succession of failed managers of City Market.

Anonymous said...

I find it interesting he is the first person charged under the Sherman Act in over a hundred years. Seriously? With all that's transpired on Wall Street and corporate American over the past few decades, he gets indicted over a handful of oil and gas leases that are entered into in this country every day? Something doesn't add up here.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I'm the first one on here to say it was Obama who did it, or was it the Clintons?

You tin-foil helmet wearing rightwingers who comment on here are late!