Posted on 03/14/2016 10:00:55 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
He grew to become a towering figure by building Chesapeake into a $37.5 billion company, thanks to his championing of controversial hydraulic fracturing. But the very gas boom he helped create caused prices to plummet, clipping the company’s value by more than half and triggering a shareholder revolt that led to McClendon’s ouster.
He then formed American Energy Partners and raised more than $10 billion to amass drilling rights from the Appalachian Mountains to Australia and Argentina. But that business, too, would soon buckle under the weight of collapsing energy prices.
This is the story of his final days, pieced together from interviews with people who spent time with McClendon or were in touch with him during his last week of life. The picture that emerges is one of a man emboldened and energized — and eager to turn a new corner.
Like everyone in the shale patch, McClendon — cocky, bold, seemingly indefatigable — had been staring down the collapse in energy prices for months. But his world darkened considerably in the week before the crash.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...
He hit the brakes twice before he hit the wall, and nothing happened.
The whole thing stinks. Follow the money.
“Follow the money.”
Or the mind of one of the greatest con artists of the oil industry.
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