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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

A federally indicted former CEO of Chesapeake Energy won't be testifying [npr.org]. "Speed was a factor" [marketwatch.com]:

Aubrey McClendon, the former CEO of Chesapeake Energy Corp. who was charged yesterday with orchestrating a conspiracy, has died in a car crash. The fatal crash occurred Wednesday morning, the Oklahoma City Police Department said in Twitter [twitter.com]. A police spokesman said McClendon's car was traveling at a high rate of speed when it collided with an overpass wall and "was engulfed in flames."

[...] McClendon was indicted yesterday, charged with "orchestrating a conspiracy not to compete for oil and gas leases in northwest Oklahoma," as Laura reported for the blog. The Justice Department described the indictment [justice.gov] as "the first case resulting from an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into price fixing, bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct in the oil and natural gas industry."

Earlier article at NYT [nytimes.com]:

His interests ranged far and wide, as he acquired trophy assets like the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team [nytimes.com], interests in a French winery and a $12 million antique map collection. He was once fined $250,000 by the National Basketball Association for bragging that he and his partners did not buy the Seattle SuperSonics to keep the team in Seattle — a statement that was at odds with the N.B.A. commissioner's intentions. The Sonics moved to Oklahoma City for the 2008-9 season, and they became the Thunder. They play in Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Mr. McClendon donated millions of dollars to the Sierra Club [time.com] from 2007 to 2010, money that the environmental group neglected to disclose even as it advocated increased use of natural gas to replace coal burning. The Sierra Club cut its ties to the natural gas industry as environmentalists raised concerns over pollution caused by fracking and the disposal of fracking fluids.

The indictment follows a four-year federal investigation that began after Reuters revealed in 2012 that Chesapeake had discussed with Encana, a rival Canadian energy giant, how to suppress land lease prices in Michigan [reuters.com]. Last year, Chesapeake settled charges of antitrust, fraud and racketeering [reuters.com] violations by agreeing to pay $25 million as compensation to landowners with leases.

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