OKLAHOMA CITY—When Aubrey McClendon drove his Chevy Tahoe into a bridge the day after he was indicted for allegedly rigging the price of oil and gas leases, suspicions arose that the shale-energy pioneer had killed himself. 
 
 But a two-month investigation by the Oklahoma City Police Department has found nothing to suggest Mr. McClendon committed suicide. 
 
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 Aubrey K. McClendon has been charged by a federal grand jury with conspiring to rig bids for the purchase of oil and natural gas leases in northwest Oklahoma, the Department of Justice announced today. 
 
 The indictment alleges that McClendon orchestrated a conspiracy between two large oil and gas companies to not bid against each other for the purchase of certain oil and natural gas leases in northwest Oklahoma. During this conspiracy, which ran from December 2007 to March 2012, the conspirators would decide ahead of time who would win the leases. The winning bidder would then allocate an interest in the leases to the other company. McClendon instructed his subordinates to execute the conspiratorial agreement, which included, among other things, withdrawing bids for certain leases and agreeing on the allocation of interests in the leases between the conspiring companies. 
 
 “While serving as CEO of a major oil and gas company, the defendant formed and led a conspiracy to suppress prices paid to leaseholders in northwest Oklahoma,” said Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “His actions put company profits ahead of the interests of leaseholders entitled to competitive bids for oil and gas rights on their land. Executives who abuse their positions as leaders of major corporations to organize criminal activity must be held accountable for their actions.” 
 
 “The FBI is committed to investigating individuals who engage in corrupt criminal conduct,” said Special Agent in Charge Scott L. Cruse of the FBI’s Oklahoma City Division. “We will continue to work with the DOJ Antitrust Division to target those who devise schemes which create an unfair competitive advantage by way of bid rigging or other illegal means.” 
 
 The indictment, filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, alleges that McClendon’s conspiracy affected certain bids for leasehold interests and producing properties in northwest Oklahoma. Leasehold interests give a lessee the right to develop the land and to extract oil and natural gas from the land for a time period typically lasting three to five years. Producing properties are tracts of land where the existing lessee has drilled wells on the land and the wells are producing a stream of oil and/or natural gas. Purchasing a producing property includes not just the underlying leasehold interests to drill on the land, but also the producing wells and infrastructure already on the land. 
 
 Each violation of the Sherman Act carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine for individuals. 
 
 The charges contained in the indictment are allegations and not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. 
 
 This is the first case resulting from an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into price fixing, bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct in the oil and natural gas industry. This investigation is being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s Chicago Office and the FBI’s Oklahoma City Field Office, with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Oklahoma. Anyone with information in connection with this investigation is urged to call the Antitrust Division’s Chicago Office at 312-984-7200, visit www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.html or call the FBI’s Oklahoma City Field Office at 405-290-7770. 

 A two-month investigation by the Oklahoma City Police Department found no evidence of suicide in the March 2 car crash that killed Oklahoma City businessman Aubrey McClendon, the police confirmed Tuesday. 
 
 A report has not been released, but the two-month investigation has been completed, spokesman Capt. Paco Balderrama told The Oklahoman on Tuesday. 
 
 "That investigation involved homicide detectives looking into the circumstances that led up to his death," Balderrama said. "After conducting a very thorough investigation, speaking to people who knew him and people who spoke to him prior to the accident, we found no information that would indicate anything other than a vehicular accident." 
 
 Balderrama said the investigation was thorough and looked into every possibility. 
 
 "We may never know with 100 percent certainty, but at the conclusion of our investigation, we had no evidence to believe there were other factors or possibilities," he said. 
 
 The police have sent their report to the medical examiner's office, where a separate investigation is still ongoing. The medical examiner's office has not yet made a determination on the manner of death, said Amy Elliott, chief administrative officer for the medical examiner. 
 
 A heavy caseload at the medical examiner's office has slowed the process, Elliott said. 
 
 Co-founder of Chesapeake Energy Corp. and founder of American Energy Partners LP, McClendon died in a car crash March 2, one day after a federal grand jury indicted him on charges of conspiring to rig bids for oil and natural gas leases in northwest Oklahoma. Those charges were dismissed after the car crash. 
 
 The police completed their accident investigation two weeks after the crash. That investigation revealed McClendon's 2013 Chevrolet Tahoe was traveling 88 mph five seconds before the impact and that it hit the concrete wall at 78 mph. McClendon was not wearing a seat belt. 
 
 The vehicle veered left of center nearly 200 feet before crashing into the wall, the accident report stated. The vehicle's crash data box also revealed that McClendon tapped the brake pedal, but did not attempt to slow just before the crash, Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty said in March. 
 
 Because of intense attention and rumors, police then decided to conduct a homicide investigation, Balderrama said Tuesday. 
 
 "There was so much chatter of a cover up or something other than an accident," he said. "To put those rumors to rest, we felt it necessary" to conduct the homicide investigation. 
 
 CONTRIBUTING: Business Writer Brianna Bailey 
 
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– The timing of energy tycoon Aubrey McClendon's death raised suspicions, but police say they've found no connection between the fiery car crash he died in and the fact that the former Chesapeake Energy CEO had been indicted just a day earlier for alleged bid-rigging, reports the Wall Street Journal. McClendon, part owner of the Oklahoma City Thunder, was speeding and not wearing a seatbelt when he slammed into a bridge in Oklahoma City on March 2. The 56-year-old fracking pioneer, who had a wife and three children, faced up to 10 years in federal prison and a $1 million fine if found guilty of conspiring to rig bids for oil and gas leases in Oklahoma. A police spokesman tells the Oklahoman that in the course of a two-month investigation, officers spoke to many people who knew McClendon, looked into every possibility, and determined there was no evidence of suicide. "We may never know with 100% certainty, but at the conclusion of our investigation, we had no evidence to believe there were other factors or possibilities," he says. A spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office says a separate investigation is continuing—and since there's a backlog of cases, it could be a long time before that investigation concludes.