OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The estate of Oklahoma City energy industry magnate Aubrey McClendon is rejecting a Tulsa man’s $500,000 claim as a forgery.
Retired Tulsa businessman Thomas Quinn said in court documents that he loaned McClendon the money in 1991 and he filed a promissory note saying full payment was due Dec. 1, 2015, although no repayment schedule is listed.
A January 2016 letter from Quinn to McClendon that was also filed said Quinn had no objection to extending the deadline by a year and that he would waive a 20 percent late payment fee.
McClendon, 56, died March 2, six weeks later, when his SUV crashed into a bridge in Oklahoma City at nearly 80 mph one day after he was indicted by a federal grand jury for alleged bid rigging.
Quinn sued after estate attorneys rejected the claim.
A brief answer to the lawsuit filed earlier this month says simply, “no enforceable contract,” and “forgery.”
Quinn told The Journal Record (http://bit.ly/2g5oKHL ) he had not seen the response, and denied the forgery allegation.
“I’m sure you can find some documents with his signature, and compare, and tell it’s absolutely authentic,” Quinn said. “That’s unfortunate; I’m sure it’s some part of a legal strategy. I was there, and I know what took place. We have a lawyer that was witness to the transaction.”
“Any attack against my integrity will be pursued vigorously, I assure you,” he said.
The estate’s attorneys did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment
Quinn said he met McClendon shortly after winning the Democratic nomination in a race for Tulsa mayor.
“I met him at a meet-and-greet at the Marriott Hotel, and I think at the time he was looking for investors,” Quinn said.
Quinn said McClendon walked over, shook his hand, congratulated him on the victory and gave him a campaign contribution. Quinn eventually lost in the general election.
McClendon was co-founder and longtime CEO of Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp., until stepping down in 2013 over differences with the company’s new board of directors.
He then formed a new energy company, American Energy Partners, another Oklahoma City oil and natural gas company. That company has since closed.
McClendon was also a part-owner of the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder.