California’s high-speed rail board voted 7-2 on Friday to strip Chief Executive Ian Choudri of his sole power to sign and manage contracts worth less than $25 million, forcing the agency’s in-house attorneys to review both new and existing agreements after a state watchdog uncovered nearly $593,000 in unallowable consultant travel expenses.
The New York Post reported that Choudri, who earns $638,943 a year, refused to answer reporters’ questions in person after the special meeting, walking away and entering a separate room while the authority’s acting head of external affairs fielded questions on his behalf.
The vote lands as auditors and whistleblowers expose a pattern of luxury travel billed to a project already years behind schedule and facing a funding crunch. For taxpayers who have watched this rail dream burn through public money since construction began in 2015, the board’s move is a long-overdue check on loose controls.
Board Chair Steve Kawa made the purpose of the special meeting plain.
“I wanted to call this special meeting to demonstrate just that we are not going to ignore, and we’re not going to sweep under the rug issues that are affecting this organization and impacting the people of California,”
The independent High-Speed Rail inspector general found nearly $593,000 in unallowable consultant travel costs. The authority had paid roughly $2 million in travel expenses to four major consulting firms. Auditors flagged first-class flight upgrades, premium airfare, rides to bars and restaurants, late-night trips to and from Choudri’s Folsom home, a cigar lounge, and an “escape room.” The agency did reject one $94.39 pizza delivery reimbursement.
Expense records obtained by CBS California Investigates showed a dozen Lyft trips involving Denver-based Nossaman LLP attorney Brent Butzin and KPMG director Thierry Prate. Those rides linked to a quiet residential road where Choudri owns a home. Some came after 1 a.m. Another dozen rides tied to bars and restaurants near Land Ocean Steak House, a pricey surf-and-turf spot Choudri is known to frequent.
A KPMG email described certain trips in vague terms as “related to work with Ian.” That thin explanation does little to reassure anyone watching public dollars disappear into first-class seats and black-car runs. The same soft oversight culture shows up in other state systems, including the Medicaid oversight gaps exposed by a Maine Democrat’s own audit.
Board member Lynn Schenk did not say much about the spending.
“I am outraged that we would be treated like a piggy bank for these kinds of expenditures,”
Jason Elliott, a former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Gavin Newsom, laid out the basic rules that apparently needed restating.
“You can’t fly first class when you’re on state travel, you don’t take an Uber black SUV,”
Those comments cut to the core problem: consultants treating a state megaproject like a private expense account while ordinary Californians foot the bill.
Choudri reportedly told board members that “we remain committed” and that he would “take full responsibility and accountability to fix if there was something broken in the system.” He mentioned “displicinary actions” but offered no details. In an emailed statement to The California Post, he pointed to strengthened oversight and training and claimed the agency had saved more than $68 million on consultant contracts over the past two years.
Rail authority spokesperson Daniela Contreras said the agency is tightening the rules.
“Only travel that is pre‑approved, within contract scope and consistent with state regulations will be eligible for reimbursement,”
Promising better training after the fact is the classic bureaucratic move. Controls that should have blocked first-class upgrades and 1 a.m. residential drop-offs never held. Similar failures appear whenever public money meets weak supervision, as seen when LA homelessness fraud arrests revealed a system built to fail.
The board’s 7-2 decision now requires attorney review of contracts under the $25 million threshold that once sat solely in the CEO’s hands. That is a concrete limit on power. Whether it changes behavior is another question.
The spending fight sits inside a larger mess. One estimate puts the full high-speed rail project at $231 billion. The authority’s latest business plan pegs the cost at $126.3 billion. Construction started in 2015. About 119 miles are under active construction, with that segment targeted for completion in 2032. The inspector general has warned the project could run out of money by the end of 2027 without additional financing.
Seventeen years after groundbreaking talk and more than a decade into actual construction, California still has no operational high-speed line connecting the major cities voters were sold. What it has is a CEO making nearly $639,000 a year, consultants billing luxury travel, and a board finally clawing back contracting authority after the watchdog report.
Taxpayers have seen this movie before in other corners of government. Large pots of public money draw freeloaders and weak managers. The Justice Department’s sweeping pandemic fraud cases showed how fast losses climb when oversight is an afterthought. California’s rail authority is writing the infrastructure version of the same story.
Whistleblowers provided CBS with underlying expense records after the inspector general found widespread failures in consultant travel oversight. A CBS LA post on October 10, 2026, flagged those failures and pointed the public to the investigation. The board’s Friday vote followed that pressure. Choudri’s decision to dodge reporters only sharpened the optics.
Stripping sole contracting authority is a start. It is not a full reckoning. The public still lacks a full itemized breakdown of every unallowable dollar across the four consulting firms, the exact trip dates, and a clear account of any discipline beyond the CEO’s vague reference. Calls for resignation have surfaced, but the information provided does not name who issued them.
What is clear is the pattern. Premium flights. Black SUVs. Late-night rides to the CEO’s neighborhood. Vague “work with Ian” notes. A pizza order that somehow made it onto a reimbursement request. All of it charged against a project that may need another bailout before the current segment even opens.
California has no shortage of public-integrity failures. From a councilman’s bribery case that ended with cash hidden in a backyard to repeated fraud probes in health programs, the common thread is simple: when officials treat public money as someone else’s problem, the bill lands on taxpayers.
The high-speed rail board finally admitted the contracting process needed adult supervision. That admission came only after nearly $593,000 in unallowed travel and a public airing of first-class tickets and midnight Lyfts. Common sense says the controls should have existed before the receipts piled up.
Voters were promised a modern train system. What they got is another expensive lesson in how California’s political class manages other people’s money, until the receipts force a vote.
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