An owner of the NBA's Thunder was indicted Tuesday in an Oklahoma City court on federal conspiracy charges.
Aubrey McClendon is facing charges of conspiring to rig bids for oil and natural gas leases. The U.S. Department of Justice alleges McClendon orchestrated a scheme for two competing companies not to bid against each another for purchases of leases in Oklahoma. Those leases would give a company the right to draw oil and natural gas from the land for a certain period of time.
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The alleged conspiracy took place between 2007 and 2012 when McClendon was the CEO of Chesapeake Energy, according to the indictment. McClendon left the company in 2013.
"While serving as CEO of a major oil and gas company, the defendant formed and led a conspiracy to suppress prices paid to leaseholders in northwest Oklahoma," U.S. Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer said in a statement, via CNBC. "His actions put company profits ahead of the interests of leaseholders entitled to competitive bids for oil and gas rights on their land."
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Chesapeake is not facing punitive action because the company cooperated with the investigation and "does not expect to face criminal prosecution or fines relating to the matter," Gordon Pennoyer, the company's director of strategic communications, said in a statement.
McClendon is part of the Thunder's ownership group led by Clay Bennett. That group purchased the Seattle SuperSonics in 2006 and moved the franchise to Oklahoma City for the 2008-09 season. McClendon was fined $250,000 by the NBA in 2007 for saying the Oklahoma-based group "didn't buy the Seattle SuperSonics to keep them in Seattle."
McClendon, a Duke university alumnus, recently bought more shares of the team from MidFirst Bank chairman and CEO G. Jeffrey Records, Jr.