Chesapeake Energy Corp., the company Aubrey McClendon built into a natural-gas giant, was sued along with his former partner by lease holders who say the pair conspired to rig bids for drilling rights during the shale boom, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The lawsuit against Chesapeake and Tom Ward comes four months after a federal grand jury indicted McClendon on March 1 for allegedly fixing shale lease auctions. McClendon died a day later when the SUV he was driving slammed into a bridge in Oklahoma City, where he lived and worked. The suit, brought by Chisholm Partners LLC and its investors, accuses Chesapeake and Ward of working together to artificially lower prices while McClendon led his company and Ward was chief executive officer at SandRidge Energy Inc. The plaintiffs are seeking at least $30 million in damages in the lawsuit filed July 13 in a federal court in Kansas City, Kansas.
