Chesapeake founder Aubrey McClendon was indicted for rigging oil lease bids and died in a crash the next day, and the claims moved to his estate

Aubrey McClendon co-founded Chesapeake Energy with Tom Ward. By 2005 it was the second-largest US natural gas producer. A founder plan gave him up to a 2.5 percent stake in every Chesapeake well, and he borrowed as much as $1.4 billion against those stakes. Forbes once put his worth at $3 billion; by 2012 it was $500 million. The board removed him as chairman in 2012, and he left in 2013 to start American Energy Partners. In October 2015 he pledged personal assets, including his 19 percent stake in the Oklahoma City Thunder, as collateral. On 1 March 2016 the Justice Department indicted him on one count of conspiring to rig bids for oil and gas leases in northwest Oklahoma. The next day his Chevrolet Tahoe hit a bridge support under an Interstate 44 overpass at well above the 50 mph limit, and he died. A police captain said, "We may never know." On 3 March prosecutors moved to dismiss the indictment. Claims then came against his estate. Chesapeake filed a claim of more than $455 million and later withdrew it. Duke University claimed $9.9 million in unpaid pledges. A Tulsa businessman claimed $500,000 on a 1991 promissory note; the estate said the note was copied from a template on a website that did not exist until 2007. A judge dismissed that claim, and the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals upheld the dismissal in August 2018.