Several lenders are attempting to recover a combined total of nearly $500 million from the estate of the deceased chief executive of an Oklahoma energy company.
The financial institution with the largest claim is Wilmington Trust, a Delaware unit of the $125 billion-asset M&T Bank in Buffalo, N.Y.
The case involves the estate of Aubrey McClendon, the founder and former chairman and CEO of Chesapeake Energy in Oklahoma City. McClendon died on March 2 when the Chevrolet Tahoe SUV he was driving hit a concrete viaduct at high speed, according to media reports. One day before the accident, a federal grand jury had indicted McClendon for violating antitrust laws for allegedly rigging oil and gas leases.
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Wilmington Trust claims McClendon's estate owes it about $464 million from a November 2014 credit and guaranty agreement, according to court records. The outstanding debt is accruing unpaid interest at a 10.5% yearly rate, Wilmington Trust said in a court document. A hearing on Wilmington Trust's claim has been scheduled for Monday in an Oklahoma City state court.
Wilmington Trust's claim was earlier
Other lenders have also filed claims in the case. A subsidiary of the $43 billion-asset CIT Group in Livingston, N.J., said that the McClendon estate owes it about $22.6 million from a December 2014 aircraft loan. The $357 million-asset Valliance Bank in Oklahoma City has filed a claim against the estate for about $6 million for an unspecified asset.