Chesapeake Energy, the company that may very well become the main player when/if fracking comes to North Carolina, is headed up Aubrey K. McClendon.
Reuters just published a lengthy report on McClendon and $1.1 billion in personal loans he got from his company. It’s a long read but well worth. Anyone considering the future of this state and fracking ought to give a look.
McClendon has borrowed as much as $1.1 billion in the last three years by pledging his stake in the company’s oil and natural gas wells as collateral, documents reviewed by Reuters show.
The loans were made through three companies controlled by McClendon that list Chesapeake’s headquarters as their address. The money is being used to help finance what could be a lucrative perk of his job – the opportunity to buy into the very same well stakes that he is using as collateral for the borrowings.
The size and nature of the loans raise concerns about whether McClendon’s personal financial deals could compromise his fiduciary duty to Chesapeake investors, according to more than a dozen academics, analysts and attorneys who reviewed the loan agreements for Reuters.
