Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Henry on June 9, 2012 at 12:10

This makes me barf.  Thousands of CHK employees are watching their 401k's tank, while Aubrey runs the company to support his personal play games.  If the stockholders don't force his resignation, they are crazy.

And, to sesport....  that's why calculators have scientific notation.

Permalink Reply by kittycatmama on June 10, 2012 at 12:17

It makes me want to barf too Henry. I know some super poor people with 5 ac. who signed a mineral lease with Chesapeake in July 2008 for $20k an acre. Other companies came along to match that, but they took signing a contract seriously. CK asked for an extension in Sept. They gave it. Last they heard from CK. That $100k to them was like a million to most. The man has since died. The 66 yr. old wife still working lots of 16 hr. shifts. Still doesn't have cent. air and heat.There are others I know who didn't get paid, but this is by far the saddest.

Permalink Reply by VSC DeSoto South on June 9, 2012 at 15:39

I don't know if I should say tsk tsk tsk or wow!

Permalink Reply by GoshDarn on June 9, 2012 at 17:58

Thanks for posting this, ses.

And they say everything's so much bigger in Texas, huh?

Well, "the cult of Aubrey" really shows what an okie natgas tycoon can do when he runs wild, runs amok.

Working his way up the ladder by mowing lawns when he was a kid?

Oh, c'mon.  Get real.

I mean, that's so b.s.  Aubrey McCl. always -- YES, ALWAYS -- had it oh so damn good.  A real silver spoon up his nose (so to speak), no doubt.  A rich kid.  C'mon.  There's no poor in his family tree.  He don't even know what the word poor means.  If he did, he wouldn't've been wasting so much of his shareholders' money on the fancy/upscale/designer luxuries (which would mean absolutely nothing to a real/honest-to-goodness true believer in the Biblical ways of old).

Such a lousy two-faced hypocrite.

Such a silver-tongued crook.

And, y'know, where there's so, so much fast money being tossed around so willy-nilly -- nine times out of ten there's also a cash trail of corruption and illegal activity.  (Follow the money.)

So, let's hope the lawmen find the right person to speak up and tell the truth about the crooked dealings which permeated "the cult of Aubrey."

Glad to see Reuters is on the case.

Good work John, Anna, and Brian.  And a big thanks to Robin, Jennifer, Joshua . . . and Alex, Blake, Mike, and Prudence.  Kudos.  A sharp read.  Can't wait to read the book and see the movie.  

 

 

 

 

Permalink Reply by w.r. frank on June 9, 2012 at 18:28

Sorry sea,but it is not either /or. Every kid of AM's era starts out mowing lawns, baling hay, carrying groceries, whatever. AM was a privileged kid from a prominent family who was a frat boy at Duke. He did not ride into town on a turnip wagon. None of that matters.

He is a smart, driven, deal master, egomaniac who delights in extreme risk with hoped for extreme rewards. He has spent shareholder money (99% theirs, less than 1% his) on his personal and egocentric lifestyle. Go to Bermuda this weekend--shareholders pay 99%, he pays 1%. Easy decision if you have no regard for shareholders.

There are good individuals who work at CHK, but the culture starts at the top--screw you (shareholders, landowners, WI owners), we are big and we will cross the line always for corporate advantage. Ask any WI owner what it is like to be a "partner" with CHK. Ask any royalty owner why CHK deducts expenses in direct violation of its written lease contracts(see Magnolia vs. CHK pending in Federal Court in Shreveport before Judge Hicks). See similar suits in TX and ARK.  Ask why CHK royalty statements do not conform with LA. civil statutes.

This is a rotten company! The sooner AM is gone, the sooner CHK will get it's balance sheet in order and be a small NG company hoping for higher NG prices.

Permalink Reply by Henry on June 9, 2012 at 23:38

At my company, we constantly go through ethics training.  We are required to report any personal financial holdings that may have the slightest appearance of a conflict of interest.  It is not for me to decide whether or not this holding presents a conflict of interest -- it is my responsibility to report it and let our legal counsel decide. My company also has strict rules about what we can do on the company's email accounts -- no running personal businesses, no gambling, no porn, etc.  Needless to say, I (or the president of my company) cannnot use company resources for personal gain.  As final guidance in all of our ethics training, we are told to ask ourselves this question:  Would you want your actions to appear on the front page of the New York Times?  If not, don't do it.

It's time for CHK management to have a one-day standdown, and have a company-wide ethics training, that starts at the top.

Permalink Reply by Krkyoldhag on June 10, 2012 at 1:44

Wouldn't it be a blessing if politicians had the advantaqe of "ethics" training?  The Edwards case is good example of the attitude of entitlement.  He might claim that the million he spent on his mistress was HIS money not campaign money  but I have to wonder..would a rich old woman have just given him a million dollars for a mistress under any condition?  If she did we are in more trouble as a nation then I dreamed.

So far as AM being worse then most CEO's...I am afraid he no worse then most.  It is my experience that "corporations" founders never are able to adjust from being the guy who started the business and owned it all to having to share with (here the operative word) shareholders. 

I have personally known dozens of CEO's and board members who played with corporate assets as tho they were their own private toys.

I remember on spur of the moment flight to Mexico in corporate jet from Dallas with half dozen others.  None of us were connected to the company that owned the jet except the guy that set up the flight.  It was just an overnight trip but now I wonder how much it cost the company for our little jaunt.  They pay their maids out of company funds (setting them up as employees of the company and on company insurance), they play and eat at country club at company expense, every trip they take is figured as company expense one way or other, they go to charity auctions and buy in company name but the items never go to company.

The list of things they do never stops.  And they really really feel entitled.

So AM is just a product of his culture.

Permalink Reply by Krkyoldhag on June 11, 2012 at 3:59

I really do not know.  I was one of them.  My company was solely owned by family.  We started it with every dime we could scrape together and borrow and it took off.  It was our baby.  I know that had we had shareholders we would have still controlled the baby and all its benefits..

We provided jobs and benefits and security for over 60 employees.  I learned from a wonderful old Jewish boss from early days how beneficial bonuses were.  So we gave bonuses out of profit.   But other owners I knew set up pension funds.  You should have seen how those oldest pension funds operated.  It was more like a TONG.

So in defense of "us" we risked everything, and it worked for us and many employees.

But also  had we gone public then there would have had to be some stark changes in how we operated..it would not have been our own personal baby.

My point is many CEO's can't make that adjustment.

I would love for Samson to drill the 3 wells they said they planned last August on my site.  I am stung that it didn't happen.  But I know my heirs will someday benefit when they come.

Entitled?  I felt entitled with the company I helped build, but really on the royalties I just look at it as a blessing if they come. 

Permalink Reply by JHH on June 11, 2012 at 0:59

WOW!  So many excellent comments on this page!  

Permalink Reply by Max on June 11, 2012 at 8:54

from the story;

McClendon, an Episcopalian, sometimes invokes religious themes at work. Each day he helps select a quotation that is emailed to employees. Some are from the Bible.

A May 2 email quotes Proverbs 16:3: "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed."

...................................................................................................

McClendon- Hey Lord, I need some help old buddy, these newspapers are dragging my #!& through the mud.  Could you see a way to give me some lighting bolts and hail stones?

Lord- Aubrey my man, where you been?  You've come a long way since you prayed for that new lawnmower.

McClendon- Yes Lord, I have.  I want to thank you for that mower you sent me so long ago, it got me started in the gas business.

Lord- Yes Aubrey, I was delighted to help you out.  I always knew you would be good.  You've done so much for Oklahoma, if it weren't for you, Texas would win all the football games.

McClendon- Yep Lord, I've done a lot, but I still need your help, how about those lighting bolts?  I got someone special I want to give one to, right up the #!s.

Lord- OK Aubrey, meet me outside on top of your big office building.  Bring a broom handle wrapped in tin foil and point it at a small dark cloud that's going to be passing by in a couple of minuets. 

McClendon- On my way Lord.  Oh, I have a couple of shareholders here visiting, can I let them hold the broom handle?

Permalink Reply by DrWAVeSport Cd1 on June 13, 2012 at 4:22

Max,

LOL!!!

Anybody  watch the 1st Thunders/Heat game last night?  

I think the CHK Stakeholders bought all those blue t-shirts with the "ONE" on them...

I don't think there were ten "fans" in the stands who weren't wearing those blue t-shirts.

That's the picture of Aubrey McClendon I see.   Control...Control...Control....  Over Everything and Over Everyone...But...Himself.

That sea of blue t-shirts last night....Kind of scary.   Surely one CHK employee said "No."  ??????

Maybe Mr. Thunder needs to read the Biblical story "The WIdow's Mite." 

Maybe He can work that one into his daily morning "biblical" proffers...

DrWAVeSport Cd1 6/13/2012

P.S.  A HUGE APPLAUSE FOR CHK SHAREHOLDERS!!!!  THANKS FOR CLEANING UP SOME OF CHK'S HOUSE AND BOD! 

 

Permalink Reply by DrWAVeSport Cd1 on June 13, 2012 at 4:30

.... per the blue t-shirts...  I probably "bought" at least a dozen!

I can't wait to see my next CHK Joint Billing Statement...under...CHK Charges For..."OTHER EXPENSES."  LOL 

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