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May 19, 2009 at 9:44 am by Michelle Leder

Chesapeake does more ’splainin

Lucille BallNearly three weeks ago, we footnoted Chesapeake Energy (CHK) for its interesting explanations about a wide range of goodies for Chairman and CEO Aubrey K. McClendon, who was the highest paid CEO last year, according to the Associated Press. As we noted on Perks Watch, McClendon also got $12.1 million from Chesapeake for selling his antique map collection to the company.

While the company provided explanations for these expenses in the proxy it filed on April 30, several days later, it was back with this amended proxy to further set the record straight. The filing was basically a copy of a letter to a reporter at the Daily Oklahoman, Chesapeake’s hometown paper, from General Counsel Henry J. Hood. In it, Hood tried mightily to explain McClendon’s bonus, the map collection, an investment in the Oklahoma City Thunder, the professional basketball team that McClendon has an ownership stake in, and catering services purchased from a restaurant where McClendon owns just shy of 50%.

Rather than trying to pull out excerpts, we suggest you read the letter in its entirety. We promise that you won’t be disappointed. Hat-tip to John Mihaljevic at Manual of Ideas for bringing this to our attention.

Posted in Buried treasure, Perk city
Tags: ,    		4 Comments »

4 Responses to “Chesapeake does more ’splainin”

  1. yv204 Says:
    May 20th, 2009 at 7:16 am

    No one found it strange that the company’s General Counsel refers to the CEO simply as “Aubrey” throughout?

  2. KJ Rodgers Says:
    May 20th, 2009 at 9:46 am

    I agree with yv204, There should be some sort of authority in place when a document calls the CEO by their first name through out. Not to mention the 12 million he got when selling old maps to his company. Red Flags should be popping up all over

  3. RH Says:
    May 22nd, 2009 at 11:30 am

    Interesting article in yesterday’s NY Times. Looks like ‘ol Aubrey was quite desperate for cash. He sold off his wine collection in addition to the maps. Guess he couldn’t get Chesapeake to buy his Bordeuax so he had to go to auction.

    Here is the excerpt

    One of the wine world’s most important collectors, Aubrey K. McClendon, chief executive of the Chesapeake Energy Corporation, a natural gas producer, recently came to auction to sell, in fact. Mr. McClendon was caught in a cash crunch last fall. His 9,000-bottle wine collection came to sale at Sotheby’s in two parts, in New York in March and in Hong Kong in April. The sales realized close to $9 million, well above the $5 million presale estimate.

    And the url for the entire article

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/business/businessspecial3/21wine.html?ref=businessspecial3

  4. eh Says:
    May 25th, 2009 at 8:38 am

    Those must be really ancient and valuable maps. I guess. Maybe they can use them as collateral for TARP.