La. police retirees question CEO compensation

The Louisiana Municipal Police Employees Retirement System is asking an Oklahoma City natural gas company to open up its books and to determine why it gave its CEO a $75 million incentive bonus. Aubrey McClendon, the CEO and co-founder of Chesapeake Energy Corp. who was forced to sell almost all his equity holdings in the company in October to cover a margin loan call, was given the huge award at the end of 2008 that boosted his total compensation for the year to $112.5 million, according to an Associated Press analysis of data filed with regulators. That’s more than four times higher than his pay package a year earlier. McClendon got the bonus even after Chesapeake’s stock plummeted last year due to falling energy prices. Marc I. Gross, an attorney for MPERS, questions why Chesapeake would need to pay its co-founder an additional award to secure his interest in the company. Gross says there’s another reason for the hefty incentive award: Chesapeake is simply bailing out its chief executive after the company’s stock took a plunge last year as energy prices dropped. Chesapeake says McClendon’s overall compensation reflects his role “in shaping the vision for the company and growing it into the largest independent producer of U.S. natural gas.”