Indicted Energy Titan Dies In Fireball Crash

A US natural gas chief has died after police said he rammed his car into a wall, the day after being indicted on corruption charges.

Aubrey McClendon, the co-founder of Chesapeake Energy Corp, was declared dead in Wednesday's fireball crash in Oklahoma City.

The 56-year-old father-of-three was facing federal anti-trust charges that he conspired to rig bids to buy oil and natural gas leases.

McClendon, who was also a part-owner of the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder, denied the charges.

Police said McClendon's 2013 Chevy Tahoe was so badly burned they were unable to tell if he had been wearing a seat belt.

He was the only occupant in the vehicle, which smashed into a concrete bridge embankment.

Police Captain Paco Balderrama said: "He pretty much drove straight into the wall.

"The information out there at the scene is that he went left of centre, went through a grassy area right before colliding into the embankment.

"There was plenty of opportunity for him to correct and get back on the roadway and that didn't occur."

Capt Balderrama said it's too early to say if the collision was intentional.

McClendon built Chesapeake into a lead player in the US fracking revolution of the past decade and one of the world's biggest natural gas producers.

But he resigned from the firm in 2013 after a corporate governance crisis over his heavy spending.

The Department of Justice said in a statement on Tuesday that McClendon was suspected of orchestrating a scheme between two large energy companies from December 2007 to March 2012.

The unnamed firms would decide who would win bids, with the winner then allocating an interest in the leases to the other company, said investigators.

McClendon said in a statement on Tuesday: "The charge that has been filed against me today is wrong and unprecedented."

The Oklahoma native attended Duke University before starting Chesapeake with a friend on the back of a $50,000 (£35,000) investment.

"Chesapeake is deeply saddened by the news that we have heard today and our thoughts and prayers are with the McClendon family during this difficult time," a Chesapeake Energy (Other OTC: CHKDJ - news) spokesman said in a statement.

The company's shares surged 33% after news of McClendon's death emerged.