Ex-Chesapeake CEO dies in crash of SUV

Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY

Aubrey McClendon, a natural-gas industry titan, was killed when police say he drove his sport utility vehicle “straight into a wall” in Oklahoma City on Wednesday, a day after he was indicted on a charge of conspiring to rig bids to buy oil and natural-gas leases in northwest Oklahoma. He was a founder and former CEO of Chesapeake Energy.

Police Capt. Paco Balderrama said McClendon, also a part-owner of the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder, was the only occupant in the vehicle when it slammed into a concrete bridge embankment shortly after 9 a.m.

“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.”

McClendon’s death follows an announcement Tuesday that he had been indicted by a federal grand jury.

Balderrama says it’s too early to say if the collision was intentional.

The Department of Justice said in a statement Tuesday that McClendon, 56, was suspected of orchestrating a scheme between two large energy companies, which are not named in the indictment, from December 2007 to March 2012. The companies would decide ahead of time who would win bids, with the winner then allocating an interest in the leases to the other company, according to the statement.

In a statement released Tuesday after his indictment, McClendon denied violating antitrust laws.