Comments on: Report: CEO Aubrey McClendon ran hedge fund inside Chesapeake

By: AJ

AJ — Wed, 02 May 2012 22:57:53 +0000

At least the story is big enough that the Oke can’t ignore it or turn a major wire story on Oklahoma energy into a 3-inch brief on Biz page 3. The energy reporters need to take more pride in their job titles. New criticism of the Oke’s slanted energy coverage: http://mediamatters.org/research/201205010007

By: Barry

Barry — Wed, 02 May 2012 22:07:38 +0000

In late 2007 the company I was at looked at every Chesapeake property and site across the country. Looked at hundreds of buildings and nearly three times the general properties from a building engineering and environmental aspect. The contract was worth well into six figures to my recollection.

Chesapeake never paid for the work. Not that it was the proverbial last straw, but one of several that resulted in that company going banko in 2009

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 02 May 2012 21:27:10 +0000

Fortunately for the board of directors, the law places surprisingly weak duties on directors. And even if they are found to have violated their duties, the company’s insurance will most likely pay for any damages absent some sort of criminal activity on the part of the directors.

By: Wylie H.

Wylie H. — Wed, 02 May 2012 19:04:45 +0000

To extend the sports analogy already raised, this roughly the equivalent of basketball coach making side bets on games in which his own team is playing.

@Rick Springfield- the problem is NOT w/ hedge funds. As you correctly point out, hedge funds are integral to the economy. The problems here are three-fold:

1) Aubrey was moonlighting when he was supposed to be devoting his fulltime efforts to running Chesapeake;

2) Trading in commodities may have resulted in him taking positions OPPOSITE the company shareholders, to whom he owes a fiduciary duty; and

3) He may have traded in commodities using inside information from Chesapeake, which could be illegal.

Hope the members of this board of directors have good attorneys… sounds like they failed miserably to do their jobs.

By: Rick Springfield

Rick Springfield — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:53:36 +0000

A lot of our largest corporations including many in this state are under the direct ownership of hedge funds. KFOR and KAUT are owned by a very large hedge fund. Many of the Tinker contractors are hedge fund operations. Its today’s way to fund a corporation and manage the profits and mitigate the loses. It also allows them to have more corporate freedom that traditional security owned corporations do not have. Just take KAUT which has a highly liberal slant and stretches the envelope on what is acceptable on over-the-air tv. A hedge fund allows that because there are not investors pulling out their stock willy nilly.

By: steve

steve — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:10:43 +0000

Isn’t that like Pete Rose betting on baseball?
Its all about greed. The me first generation.

By: Jay

Jay — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:54:09 +0000

Check this out for an interesting read. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-big-fracking-bubble-the-scam-behind-the-gas-boom-20120301

By: Cheyenne

Cheyenne — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:58:43 +0000

This looks real, real bad. Curious, why is this Reuters scoop up so quick, while the other took hours and hours to be covered by The Oklahoman. Hmmmm.