Aubrey McClendon, a founder and former chief executive of Chesapeake Energy and co-owner of the Oklahoma City Thunder, died in a car crash Wednesday at age 56, a day after he was charged with conspiring to rig bids for oil and natural gas leases.

McClendon crashed into an embankment while traveling at a "high rate of speed" Wednesday morning, said Capt. Paco Balderrama of the Oklahoma City Police Department.

"He pretty much drove straight into the wall," Balderrama said.

The alleged conspiracy took place between December 2007 and March 2012, the indictment said.

McClendon was once fined $250,000 by the NBA for publicly saying, "We didn't by the (Sonics) to keep it in Seattle."