State unloads Adam Crum's $50 million gamble at an $800,000 loss
In a fitting capstone to the bungling of state finances that has marked Dunleavyland, the state has dumped the $50 million long-term investment made by former Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum at a loss of nearly $860,000.
The actual loss to the state will exceed $1 million, however, as Dunleavy has had the AG give $350,000 to an Outside law firm to tell him what Crum, who was supervised by Dunleavy, was doing.
When Dunleavy called legislative leaders a few months ago to inform them of the $50 million investment, he left the impression that he knew nothing about what Crum was up to, according to House Speaker Bryce Edgmon.
Crum took short-term money from the Constitutional Budget Reserve, which may be needed soon because Dunleavy has no fiscal plan, and made a long-term investment that would require many years to generate a profit. The money went to Digital Bridge.
Dunleavy refused to reveal any details of the investment.
Crum has claimed that Dunleavy and various administation leaders knew all about what he was doing.
“The whole claim that no one knew this was coming is a complete and utter lie,” Crum told the Anchorage Daily News in early October.
Either Dunleavy or Crum is lying.
Crum is running for governor. We need to know if he is telling the truth. Crum says that he ran the plan by the governor’s office and top attorneys in the Department of Law.
Former Attorney General Tregarrick Taylor, who is also running for governor, needs to be questioned on this as well to find out what he knew and when.
Dunleavy, Crum, Taylor and others need to held accountable for this reckless investment.
A January 13 letter from the acting revenue commissioner to legislative leaders said that numerous state officials and “external experts” agreed that selling Crum’s investment—of which only $20.6 million had changed hands—was a great idea.
The letter was posted on X by the Alaska Landmine.
The state sold its investment to the Migdal Insurance Company, which is listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
“The purchaser has now assumed all rights and future obligations for the fund, leaving the state with no residual exposure,” Earls wrote.
The state invested $20.6 million and got back $19.8 million. Management fees and expenses make up the loss.
On July 28, 2025, three days after Dunleavy announced that Crum would be quitting as of August 8, Crum signed a $50 million “agreement for a subscription in a private equity limited partnership,” the acting commissioner Janelle Earls wrote to the legislative auditor September 30
The main reason for keeping the CBR entirely in cash is that the Dunleavy administration has no fiscal plan and the governor proposes massive deficits every year that would have to be covered by withdrawing $1 billion or $2 billion from the CBR.
The lunacy in that case was Dunleavy’s veto of transportation money that has set up an immediate crisis for road contractors.
“Obviously he has a master plan, of which we don’t know who the master is,” Stedman said. “He made a mess. I want to see his solution.”
Truer words about the Dunleavy master plan were never spoken.
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