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.”

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Federal workers across Alaska are bracing for potential layoffs on top of missing paychecks, as union officials warn that up to 200,000 federal employees nationwide could lose their jobs permanently during the ongoing government shutdown.

Based on union estimates and federal employment data, Alaska could see about 799 federal workers laid off if the cuts are distributed proportionally across states.

“There are a lot of people afraid,” David Owens, American Federation of Government Employees national representative, told Alaska’s News Source Thursday, describing President Donald Trump’s layoff threat at the time.

“They’re very worried. They feel like they’re being pawns, and they’re tired,” Ownes.

The threat comes after about 280,000 positions from the federal workforce were cut by DOGE, according to reporting in July by CNBC.

Now, Owens said the government could be looking into cutting 150,000 to 200,000 more positions.

A spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget told the Associated Press the reduction would be “substantial,” but did not offer more immediate details, including how many federal employees would be laid off.

According to Office of Personnel Management data, Alaska has 11,658 federal employees as of September 2024. If the 200,000 layoffs nationally that Owens cited is accurate, and federal employment data shows the country currently employs approximately 2.2 million civilian federal workers, about 9.1% of federal employees would be laid off.

If that percentage was applied equally in each state, about 1,052 federal employees in Alaska may be laid off.

Court filings from the AFGE currently highlight 4,000 employees will be laid off, but also states, “Other Defendant agencies (in addition to some of those agencies identified above) are actively considering whether to conduct additional RIFs related to the ongoing lapse in appropriations”

Several impacted agencies reportedly include departments of the Interior, Homeland Security, Treasury, Education, Energy, Housing and Urban Development and Health and Human Services, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, according to NBC reporting citing an anonymous official.

The president said Friday he would target firings towards those aligned with the Democratic Party.

“It’ll be a lot of people,” CNN reports he said. “I must tell you, a lot of them happen to be Democrat oriented.”

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Alaska’s News Source last week he didn’t expect his department to be hit hard.

“I don’t expect it to necessarily, but if that’s what it comes to, … we do have an effort underway still to try and find more efficiency in how we deliver services,” Burgum said, referencing the DOGE initiative.

Jessica Sunigaq Ullrich was at home last week waiting for a contractor to come fix her countertops when she heard yelling outside. She stepped out to see what was happening.

“I was definitely concerned,” Ullrich said. “And it wasn’t long after that I saw them walking this young man wearing a red hoodie towards a vehicle.”

The man Ullrich had hired is one of at least 56 people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Alaska so far this year — more than the previous two years combined. There were a total of 13 ICE arrests in Alaska in 2024, while there were 20 in 2023, according to the Alaska Department of Corrections. The dramatic increase comes as the Trump administration intensifies its nationwide crackdown on immigration.

Some residents, like Ullrich, say the surge in arrests is deeply troubling and they’re stepping up to support detainees. Ullrich said while she had heard about ICE officers arresting people across the country, she was shocked to see a detention up close. She recorded it and posted the video to Facebook, where it was shared hundreds of times.

“It felt like I was watching a government-endorsed kidnapping, essentially,” Ullrich said. “And I couldn’t believe, I didn’t feel prepared for what I was witnessing in Anchorage, Alaska, in my neighborhood, in my front yard.”

Anchorage immigration attorney Nicholas Olano said he expects the number of ICE detentions in Alaska to balloon as the agency receives billions more in federal funding.

“This is the horrible and sad truth is that those pickups and those arrests are following the law as it is written,” Olano said. “And if we are shocked by this, we need to change the law.”

In the meantime, he said there are ways people can support detainees including following Ullrich’s example by recording arrests.

“That’s great because we’re holding everybody accountable,” Olano said. “These officers, we’re making sure that they’re doing their job right, that they’re not pushing or abusing somebody.”

Olano said public advocacy is another way to garner support for detainees.

The day after Ullrich posted her video, she attended a shareholder meeting for the Bering Straits Regional Corporation. She told fellow shareholders about her concerns over the corporation’s investment in Global Precision Systems LLC, a company affiliated with several ICE detention centers in Texas and Arizona.

“I felt compelled to share what I witnessed,” Ullrich said, “and to ask at the annual meeting that was scheduled for the very next morning if we as shareholders and whether the board of directors could consider divesting from companies like this that are profiting off of what feels like the torment of human beings.”

Ullrich said she wonders if the topic of Native corporations divesting from detention centers should be raised at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention next week.

“I’ve been informed there are multiple Alaska Native corporations that are connected with detention centers,” Ullrich said. “And that’s an issue, I feel like, in terms of that alignment with values and us ensuring that we’re not part of the harm of our Indigenous relatives from Central and South America.”

Wesley Early

/

Advertisement

Alaska Public Media

Olano said financial support is another critical way to support detainees and their families. Since July, he has represented the family of Paola Guzman, a housecleaner who was detained by ICE in Anchorage and sent to a detention center in Tacoma, Wash. Guzman’s son, Aldo Coyotl, said his mother has lived in Alaska for more than 20 years and, one day in July, several cars barricaded her in as she parked, on her way to a cleaning job.

“Once you know it, all of them are around her,” Coyotl said. “And so she’s just in her car, terrified, and when they knock on her window, they show that they already have a court order and that they have her warrant for her arrest.”

Olano said Guzman did not have proper immigration documents. He said ordinarily, people who have been detained for entering the U.S. unlawfully would be able to post a bond to get released, but he ran into issues trying to pay Guzman’s bond.

“We ran into a new policy by the Tacoma immigration judges of denying bond for people who had crossed the border in the United States at any point,” Olano said. “This was something completely new.”

Olano challenged the judge’s decision that Guzman couldn’t post her bond, and a court ruled in her favor last week. All the while, Olano said legal and other associated fees made the ordeal expensive.

“A call from the Tacoma Detention Center is $8 a minute,” Olanos said. “These rates are not even 1980s long distance rates. That’s absurd.”

Wesley Early

/

Alaska Public Media

Advertisement

In order to help support Guzman, her friend Rebecca Rogers started a GoFundMe to help cover some of those fees. Rogers has known Guzman for more than 20 years, and said she’s a valuable community member.

“She was a hockey mom, a school mom, involved in her church,” Rogers said. “And I just grew to care for her very much.”

Rogers said she hopes that residents realize the hardships their fellow community members are going through.

“I think if people are paying attention, they realize that the people we care about, many of them who may not have their paperwork in place, are just vulnerable to a pretty vindictive, kind of crazy, insane system,” she said

The $16,000 raised in the online fundraiser, in part, helped to cover Guzman’s legal fees and bond.

Guzman was reunited with her family in Anchorage this week. Olano said Guzman will still have to appear before an immigration judge to hear her case, and he expects the process will take years.