Oct. 11—Former Alaska Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum says he was following state law when he committed $50 million in state funds to invest in a digital infrastructure firm shortly before he departed public office.
Crum’s decision to commit the funds from the Constitutional Budget Reserve — the state’s rainy day fund — later led Gov. Mike Dunleavy to promise a third-party independent review of the investment. It also caused alarm from House Speaker Bryce Edgmon and Senate President Gary Stevens, who in a joint statement said that the investment “raises serious concerns about accountability, transparency, and fiscal responsibility.”
But Crum, who departed the Dunleavy administration in July and days later announced he was running for governor, said Friday that members of Dunleavy’s administration, including the governor himself and top attorneys in the Department of Law, had known about his investment plan for months.
Department of Revenue spokesperson Aimee Bushnell said in an email that Crum had informed the governor’s office of his plan, but Bushnell declined to answer when she was asked when, exactly, Dunleavy was informed. The governor’s office “cautioned that any investments made needed to be in accordance with established investment policies and procedures,” Bushnell said.
The idea for the $50 million investment in private equity, Crum said, was to resume a practice first initiated by lawmakers more than 20 years ago, of investing some funds from Alaska’s Constitutional Budget Reserve in a subaccount with the goal of yielding “higher returns than might be feasible to obtain with other money in the budget reserve fund,” assuming that the funds would not be needed for at least five years, according to state statute.
But lawmakers liquidated the subaccount’s nearly $7 billion in 2015 amid a decline in oil revenue, and hadn’t used it since, though its existence remained prescribed in law. Since 2020, the Department of Revenue’s policy has remained to keep the funds from the Constitutional Budget Reserve — which currently stand at roughly $3 billion — in short-term investments, under the assumption that the funds might be needed in the near term. Indeed, under Dunleavy’s most recent budget proposal, the funds in that account would have been fully spent by 2028, far before the five-year timeline prescribed in the subaccount statute.
Because the funds in the account for years have been invested accessibly and with lower rates of return, “simply leaving all of the money in the Constitutional Budget Reserve was actually irresponsible,” Crum concluded.
Crum said he asked former Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor if he could revive the subaccount to “invest in alternatives” that would both have a higher rate of return and “help Alaska as a whole.”
“They said, ‘yes you can, make sure that you update the investment policy statement,’ ” Crum said.
The Department of Law did not respond to questions from the Daily News, including whether Taylor — who himself resigned in August to run for governor — reviewed the investment proposal.
Crum said that once he decided to revive the subaccount, he chose to invest in digital infrastructure — a category that includes data centers and cellphone towers — because these are “the things that we’re actually going to need more and more of because we don’t have enough power and we don’t have enough data.” He said he chose the firm DigitalBridge after meeting with members of the firm both in New York and in Alaska.
According to Crum’s public calendar, he met with DigitalBridge executives four times in November 2024, including one meeting to which both Dunleavy and Alaska Gasline Development Corp. President Frank Richards were invited. Dunleavy spokesperson Jeff Turner did not respond Friday when asked whether Dunleavy did, in fact, attend the meeting, and whether the potential investment was discussed.
DigitalBridge, headquartered in Florida with assets estimated at around $106 billion, was founded as Colony Capital by Thomas Barrack, an adviser and fundraiser for President Donald Trump. In 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged the firm with breaches of its fiduciary duty.
Crum said DigitalBridge is “interested in Alaska for a lot of things” and “they’ve come up here a lot.” However, he said the $50 million he committed to the firm was not intended for in-state investment.
“It was actually directly written into the documents that this is not for in-state investment,” Crum said. “The idea on that is, you want to actually invest on the merits.”
“Over time, as we look to actually develop infrastructure and have this in Alaska, having a relationship with an investment firm like this actually draws attention from other investment firms,” Crum added.
Crum said he committed $50 million to DigitalBridge with an intention of expanding the subaccount investments up to 10% of the value of the Constitutional Budget Reserve — which would amount to roughly $300 million — but that didn’t happen before he left the department.
On Sept. 30, Acting Revenue Commissioner Janelle Earls wrote to legislative auditor Kris Curtis to inform her of the investment decision, noting the letter was part of the department’s protocol for “non-routine investments.” On the same day, Dunleavy called Edgmon and Stevens to tell them about the investment.
Edgmon said in an interview that his impression from the call was that Dunleavy had not been aware of the $50 million obligation before Crum resigned.
Edgmon, a Dillingham independent, said he’s “confused” about Crum’s assertion that he ran the investment decision by Dunleavy and the Department of Law.
“It’s my understanding that the governor’s office is saying otherwise, and it’s troubling that we don’t know what took place,” said Edgmon.
Edgmon said that Dunleavy promised him and Stevens that an independent third-party review of the investment agreement would be conducted.
The Department of Revenue and the governor’s office did not answer questions on who is conducting that review or when its results were expected.
Crum, meanwhile, said Friday that “the whole claim that no one knew this was coming is a complete and utter lie.”
Crum said that Dunleavy likely reached out to lawmakers to inform them of the investment commitment “as an olive branch.” As for the independent review of the investment decision, Crum said he sees it as Dunleavy ensuring “transparency for the public.”
That’s not how the Department of Revenue portrayed it. In an email, Bushnell said that “after the former Commissioner left state service, the newly appointed Acting Commissioner (Earls) expressed concern over the process utilized for making the investment. After being advised of the acting commissioner’s concerns, the governor apprised legislative leadership of the transaction, forwarded documents to the legislative auditor for review, and directed an outside third-party review be conducted to determine whether there were in fact any violations of policy and make process recommendations as appropriate.”
Bushnell did not answer questions on the specific cause for Earls’ concern.
Edgmon said that lawmakers will review the investment when the Legislature convenes in January.
“The whole situation is eyebrow-raising,” Edgmon said, “and until reasonable answers are provided and we can all get to the bottom of this, I think it’s going to remain an issue of concern.”
