Tell It To Al

When companies collude they rarely put it to writing.

That does not seem to be the case with two naturual gas giants bidding on land leases. Reuters reports  Chesapeake Energy Corp. plotted with Encana, it’s fiercest competitor, to suppress land prices at public land auctions in Michigan. Click here to read it’s investigation.

We are talking bid rigging, price fixing, bid-rotation, collusion – all those things corporate people like to attribute to wild conspiracy theorists. And it appears to be contained in emails. Who writes things like this down in emails?

In a July 16, 2010 email, Chesapeaike’s CEO Aubrey McClendon suggested his company “smoke a  peace pipe” with Encana.

It’s unclear what he expected to put in that pipe.

McClendon is already embattled for personally borrowing more than $1.3 billion from a company that also finances his publicly traded company. He’s been removed from the company’s board and the Securities and Exchange Commission and the IRS have launched inquiries.