California high-speed rail chief quits amid billowing expenses scandal

Ian Choudri resigns after report found agency overseeing troubled LA-San Francisco project misused over $600,000 in public funds

The chief executive of California’s embattled high-speed rail authority abruptly resigned on Wednesday, over a month after a state watchdog determined the agency had misused public funds.

In September, California’s office of the inspector general released an investigative report finding that the rail authority had paid $543,000 in travel-related reimbursements for consultants that were not allowed, including international or out-of-state travel expenses.

The report raised questions about whether business and pleasure was mixed under chief executive Ian Choudri’s purview. The rail authority paid $81,000 for consultants’ travel expenses to places that lacked an official purpose, including gyms, an escape room and a nightclub.