No Justice

The Houston Chronicle ran a story on 4/20/2018 about Linn Energy, an oil and gas company. Linn Energy was operated as a Master Limited Partnership, which is a corporate structure intended to enhance tax avoidance.

Linn Energy aggressively built its size by incurring massive debt. Servicing the debt depended upon sustained high oil prices. Linn Energy executives paid themselves lavishly along the way. But, oil prices fell and by 2016 when Linn Energy filed for bankruptcy, it had $8.3 billion in debt. Linn Energy is now splitting itself into multiple businesses.

Linn Energy’s investors were wiped out by the bankruptcy, but its top 3 corporate leaders (CEO, COO and CFO) received payouts totaling $110 million. Something is VERY wrong with this picture.