More legal trouble for Chesapeake
OKLAHOMA CITY — There is more trouble for Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy.
A shareholder has filed a lawsuit over the company’s corporate jet policy.
Gilberta Norris of Virginia is claiming top executives as well as Chesapeake’s Board of Directors used company jets for personal travel, wasting millions of dollars.
Some of the names listed in the lawsuit include CEO Aubrey McClendon, OSU President Burns Hargis and former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating.
Both Hargis and Keating serve on the board and earn more than $450,000 a year, in that position.
The board met four times in 2011.
The lawsuit alleges because of their outsized compensation packages, the director defendants are essentially employees, or insiders, rather than independent directors.
As a result, are beholden to the company and would not be willing to take any actions that could jeopardize their compensation.
Chesapeake responded this afternoon saying, “We are aware of the suit and will reserve comment for the appropriate forum.”
