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CHESAPEAKE ENERGY CLAIMS FORMER CEO MCCLENDON STOLE TRADE SECRETS - Company Gave McClendon $75 Million Bonus Before Ousting |
| (02/20/2015) |
| By Bob Weaver Chesapeake Energy founder Aubrey K. McClendon and his new company, American Energy Partners LP, is responding to allegations he stole trade secrets from Chesapeake in the days before his departure. McClendon's new company is active in West Virginia. McClendon, former CEO of Chesapeake Energy, was outraged over the outcome of a class action suit in Roane County, the plaintiffs awarded $134.3 million in actual damages, and $270 million in punitive damages. The suit was based on Chesapeake stripping royalty holders of their due benefits. Unfortunately, some WV royalty holders still say such practices are continuing with some companies using "fine print." McClendon was making a $24 million salary and was given a $75 million bonus before the company ousted him, allegedly calling West Virginia a "hellhole" to do business and cancelling plans to build Chesapeake's national headquarters in Charleston. < In a news release defending his position with his former employer, McClendon says the information he took with him when he agreed to leave Chesapeake in January 2013 was part of his exit package. McClendon said Chesapeake agreed to pay him the compensation benefits detailed in his employment agreement and "promised he would be provided with an extensive array of information about the more than 16,000 wells, and the related leasehold acreage and future wells, he jointly owns with Chesapeake." Chesapeake now maintains that while McClendon was entitled to information about existing projects, before leaving he accessed sensitive information about open acreage and investment opportunities that was never intended for him. "In McClendon's last days at Chesapeake he misappropriated highly sensitive trade secrets from the company," said Chesapeake. "He subsequently used these trade secrets for the benefit of AELP (his new company)." The company also claims while he was still employed at Chesapeake, "McClendon began soliciting investors for AELP, a complex configuration of new companies he was forming to take advantage of the valuable Chesapeake information." "Due to the concealed nature of McClendon's conduct, Chesapeake did not discover (his) misappropriation until long after he had separated from Chesapeake," the company said.
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