Aubrey McClendon

[The Big Ragu]

This story is wild.

For those unfamiliar, Aubrey McClendon was riding high 10, 15 years ago. He was the founder of Chesapeake Energy, and was known as a pioneer of shale drilling. He was larger than life -- one year had a pay package of $112 million making him notorious for corporate largesse, except the stock was delivering 20 percent returns annualized. He was a billionaire and an almost larger-than-life figure in the world of natural gas.

A few years ago, things started to unravel. He was forced out at Chesapeake after it came out that he had borrowed a ton of money in personal loans from companies that were lenders to the company. It looked like a giant conflict of interest at best. The whole thing was sleazy. His spending habits, and his use of company resources for personal things came under scrutiny. It was an ugly split with a lawsuit over him stealing company data on available land on his way out. He generally came off as sleazy and reckless with money.

He had kind of disappeared from sight. ... until yesterday the Justice Department indicted him for allegedly rigging the bidding process on certain oil and gas leases in Oklahoma over several years. It put his name back in the news this morning.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/02/b...racy-in-oil-and-natural-gas-bidding.html?_r=0

I figured that was that. But then, just a few minutes ago. ... I read that he had crashed his car and killed himself today. He pretty much drove himself straight into a wall -- literally and figuratively.

Ex-Chesapeake CEO McClendon dies in car wreck

 

[Inky_Wretch]

That helps explains all the rumors about Chesapeake prepping for bankruptcy.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

I was just coming here to post about this. I don't think there's any doubt this was intentional.

Police: Former CEO of Chesapeake Aubrey McClendon killed in car wreck

“He pretty much drove straight into the wall,” Balderrama said. “The information out there at the scene is that he went left of center, went through a grassy area right before colliding into the embankment. There was plenty of opportunity for him to correct and get back on the roadway and that didn’t occur.”

 

[Big Circus]

Part owner of the Thunder (who, of course, play in Chesapeake Energy Arena), too. Seattleites set down their coffee long enough to golf clap.

 

[Mr. Sunshine]

Wasn't Aubrey McClendon on "The Hills"?

 

[Riptide]

He had a lot of crazy drive, so I guess he died doing what he loved.

 

[poindexter]

If there was any justice in this world, we would have had a ****load of these in 2009.

 

[The Big Ragu]

That helps explains all the rumors about Chesapeake prepping for bankruptcy.

That has more to do with the fact that it is massively in debt and its profits have fallen off a cliff. All things that happened post McClendon. It has been ridiculously cheap to borrow with what the Federal Reserve created with QE and interest-rate suppression and the mispricing of risk that created. Chesapeake loaded itself up with cheap debt and kept expanding into harder-to-drill-in-areas -- as did its competitors. The market couldn't price the risk properly because of the Fed.

All of that created supply gluts in oil and gas. It all worked as long as demand remained strong and the prices of oil and gas remained high. But the opposite has happened. The global economy is slow, demand has been weak globally, and there is way too much supply. They can't make money drilling at these prices -- particularly in the harder-to-drill areas they expanded into. At the same time, the world started coming to its senses and high-yield debt started to reprice as people started realizing the Fed lost control this year. Which has left Chesapeake scrambling to service what is a massive amount of debt.

A few dozen of their competitors have already declared bankruptcy and Chesapeake is on its last breath -- selling everything that isn't nailed down and trying to conserve cash. About a month ago, the stock crashed on reports that they had retained bankruptcy lawyers, and honestly, it would be the easiest path for the company. But to management's credit (which hasn't included McClendon in years), they have been doing everything they can to avoid a bankruptcy. They may not have a choice at some point.

 

[YankeeFan]

What a way to go.

Sister of a friend tried to commit suicide by driving against traffic on the Interstate. Crashed into an oncoming truck. She survived, but it wasn't pretty.

Can't imagine choosing this route.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

I wouldn't be surprised if we learned he tossed some accelerant on the truck to make sure this was done in one take.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Coward.

 

[CD Boogie]

Jesus, what ever happened to some peaceful carbon monoxide in the garage? Unless he was hoping that by making it look like a possible non-suicide his family could collect on an insurance policy.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Jesus, what ever happened to some peaceful carbon monoxide in the garage? Unless he was hoping that by making it look like a possible non-suicide his family could collect on an insurance policy.

Unless there is some sordid tale of him blowing through more than a billion dollars on top of all of this. ... his net worth was easily still more than half a billion dollars, perhaps much more. Even with the hit to his net worth he likely has taken over the last few years. I can't imagine his wife and kids are going to be hurting for money and need a life insurance payout.

 

[CD Boogie]

Fair point.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

I don't know about other states, but in Pennsylvania the insurance companies will pay a death benefit on a suicide if the policy has been in effect for two years or more.

 

[wicked]

Thieving corporate ****bag refuses to face the music and takes the easy way out. I've seen this story before.

 

[YankeeFan]

Suicide is too good for him.

One getting raped in prison would have satisfied some here.

 

[wicked]

Good straw man there ... but no one is getting prison raped in a Club Fed.

 

[YankeeFan]

Good straw man there ... but no one is getting prison raped in a Club Fed.

Too bad, huh?

 

[wicked]

Too bad that he couldn't be punished for his crimes? Sure. No one mentioned prison rape.