Stan Geiger

Hargis Drops Bundle on Chesapeake Stock

According to news reports from last July, V. Burns Hargis, president of Oklahoma State University, was appointed to Chesapeake Energy's board of directors effective September 15th of this year. According to SEC filings, V. Burns Hargis bought 10,000 shares of Chesapeake stock on September 15th.

Chesapeake Energy, a top nat gas producer, has been particularly active in the political arena of late. It, along with super OSU benefactor Boone Pickens, has been pushing nat gas as a transportation fuel. Hargis, in addition to being president of state-funded OSU, is a longstanding Oklahoma political operative. Immediately upon getting hired as OSU prez he got appointed Chesapeake director, and now, all of the sudden, he's a sizable shareholder in the company.

Well now, this makes for an interesting game of connect the dots.

Beyond that, a 10,000-share purchase of Chesapeake stock, roughly speaking, ran Hargis $400,000. How, do you reckon, did one of those "downtrodden, underpaid, public educators," one of those "dedicated public servants," come up with that kind of scratch? I mean did he go in a corner and crap 400 large?

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