Chesapeake is certainly a company facing plenty of headwinds. It hopes to raise $10 billion by selling some of its assets to pay down a debt load that is so large it prompted Standard & Poor's to cut its rating on the firm to BB and put it on negative credit watch. Nor, as Reuters Breakingviews points out in this recent article, can Chesapeake count on one of its traditional sources of cash, a master limited partnership in which it has a 50% stake. That's because of Chesapeake's other big problem, a governance crisis involving its CEO, Aubrey McClendon that has prompted shareholder lawsuits and now an unofficial SEC investigation. (For an analysis of the governance missteps by both McClendon and Chesapeake's directors, see this analysis from Breakingviews.) The controversy has already cost McClendon his post as chairman of the company he helped to found. Is the outlook for Chesapeake Energy really as bleak as it seems, however?