Chesapeake Energy Posts 1Q $6B Loss

Chesapeake shares hit $74 last summer as prices rose, but then tumbled all the way to $9.84 in December, the lowest level in more than five years.

Chesapeake Energy Chief Executive Aubrey McClendon received the fattest pay package of any CEO in the U.S. in 2008, $112.5 million, according to an Associated Press analysis of his compensation. McClendon's total was inflated by a $75 million bonus he received on Dec. 31 as part of a new employment contract. He owns a stake in some of the company's wells, and the company said his bonus payment will go toward his portion of the cost of developing and maintaining them.

The bonus came two months after McClendon was forced to sell more than 31 million shares of Chesapeake stock — valued at $550 million and down from a peak of $2.2 billion only three months earlier — to cover bank demands for repayment of loans. The huge sale helped further drive down the stock price last fall.

The pay package has angered some shareholders. New Orleans Employees' Retirement System has claimed in legal action that the board failed in its duties when it awarded the compensation to McClendon. A second group, the Louisiana Municipal Police Employee Retirement System, has taken court action to demand more information from the company about how the compensation was awarded.