California high-speed rail CEO quits after watchdog flags consultant travel at nightclubs and cigar lounges

The inspector general’s September report found that $680,500 in consultant travel reimbursements from 2024 to 2026, about 60% of the spending it examined, lacked the advance approval state rules require, CBS News Sacramento reported. It ruled $592,000 of that unallowable: premium airfares, upgraded rideshares and trips to a tiki bar, a nightclub, a cigar lounge, an escape room and gyms. CalMatters reported that some trips were made at Choudri’s request and that many ended in Folsom, a suburb of Sacramento where he owns a home. Agency staff said on October 28 that the consulting firms have repaid nearly $1.3 million.

Earlier in October the board stripped part of his contracting power, so the agency’s own lawyers had to clear any contract below $25 million before he could sign it. Board members were also due to decide this week whether he had earned a $25,000 performance bonus. Choudri, paid more than $534,000 this year, cited personal and family priorities in his resignation email and did not answer CalMatters’ questions.

He left a day after a major purchase. On October 28 the board approved a $772.1 million contract with Siemens Mobility for three seven-car trainsets that Siemens will design, build and test by 2030, and the authority will pay up to $63.7 million more in import duties and tariffs. The 2026 business plan puts the full system at $126 billion to $231 billion. In July the inspector general warned that the agency’s money could be gone by December 2027.