Corporate Governance

Demanding Books and Records from Chesapeake Energy

By Fei-Lu Qian

Last week, the Louisiana Municipal Police Employee Retirement System took the responsible step in demanding answers and accountability from directors of Chesapeake Energy by filing a ?books and records demand? in a state court of Oklahoma. As reported by Gretchen Morgenson of the NY Times, if the demand is granted by the court, shareholders of Chesapeake Energy will be able to examine Chesapeake?s corporate documents to see if the board?s approval of a $75 million bonus to its chief executive officer was proper. Of course, Chesapeake said that the bonus was ??in recognition of his leadership role in completing a series of transactions in 2008 that were valuable to the company its shareholders.?? However, let the truth be known, Chesapeake?s earnings dropped by half and the stock plummeted by 60% by the end of last year.

Full post as published by PomTalk on April 01, 2009 (boomark / email).