New documents reveal a cozy relationship between former Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum and AI investors, preceding three government contracts worth more than $80 million. The latest revelations fall into a pattern of Crum awarding contracts to people who align with his interests.
Crum granted the contracts to three companies tied to tech and energy investor Peter Corsell, after one of his companies sponsored a glacier cruise for a Republican state treasurer conference that Crum hosted in Sept. 2024. The sponsor, Saige Consulting, where Corsell is board chairman, was in an active bid process with the revenue department at the time. Crum awarded Saige two contracts worth $8.5 million.
Throughout 2024 and much of 2025, Crum was preparing to put $225 million of state rainy day funds into three risky private equity investments, flouting departmental protocols, against the advice of Treasury advisors, and contrary to promises he made to the legislature. He resigned last August to run for governor, before details became known to the public.
Two months later, controversy erupted over a $75 million deal Crum signed with data center developer DigitalBridge, leading to an independent review initiated by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The Alaska Current exposed the governor’s extensive history with the firm in January.
The review surfaced deals with two other private equity firms worth $75 million each, including Blackstone and energy infrastructure developer I Squared Capital, where Corsell was a partner, leading its tech funds. Sometime early this year, another of Corsell’s companies, Twenty First Century Utilities, entered into a still largely under-the-radar public-private partnership with the North Slope Borough (NSB), the regional government of the northernmost part of the state.
North Slope Power, a mega utility that will tap into Prudhoe Bay’s estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of known natural gas reserves, is designed to generate up to 10 gigawatts of power, which is larger than any currently operating natural gas plant in the world. In 2024, all of Alaska’s power plants produced 2.9 gigawatts combined. The project’s target customers are hyperscale data centers, which are energy and water intensive.
The risks for Alaskan Native people, their ecosystems, and livelihoods are enormous, particularly in this era of intensifying climate change. The project could bring in many billions of dollars to Corsell’s companies if successful, either through private investment, government subsidy, or a mix of both.
One of Dunleavy’s and President Trump’s top priorities, the Alaska liquid natural gas (LNG) pipeline, languished for years because of insufficient energy demand to justify its massive costs and insufficient corporate appetite to risk their own money. Trump’s $500 billion Stargate AI initiative to build power-hungry data centers across the country solves the pipeline’s demand problem. Traversing the investor conference circuit, Dunleavy has honed his pitch: build data centers and energy infrastructure in Alaska, where energy, space, water, and cold weather are abundant.
Though Dunleavy has obscured his own relationship with DigitalBridge and denied directing Crum’s actions, the former revenue chief has maintained that the governor was supportive of his plan. These new revelations provide further evidence that Crum’s private equity investments were pursued to help Dunleavy and Trump execute on AK LNG and Stargate.
The Alaska Current obtained exclusive photos, documents, and other previously unreported details of these apparent conflicts of interest.
Crum, Dunleavy, and Corsell did not respond to requests for comment.
A “Rising Star” in Fiduciary Duty
As Saige Consulting was under consideration for a $7.5 million contract to modernize the Revenue Department’s tech infrastructure, Crum and attendees of the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) summit toured glaciers on a five-hour cruise of Prince William Sound, courtesy of Saige. An SFOF travel document indicated that Saige was the “Group Transport Sponsor.” Adult fares for the cruise and coach transport from Anchorage run about $345. The boat’s capacity is 150-200 people, so full freight would have totaled approximately $69k.
In the network of right-wing organizations waging the so-called “War on Woke,” SFOF plays a key role. The nonprofit organizes GOP treasurers and auditors to aggressively advocate for fossil fuels and fight the very climate change initiatives aimed at protecting Alaskan glaciers, all while invoking the mantra of “fiduciary duty.” SFOF named Crum its 2025 National Vice Chair and its 2024 “Rising Star” shortly before and during the event, respectively.
On Aug. 15, 2024, the Department of Revenue (DOR) issued a request for proposals to build cloud-based tech infrastructure to administer the Permanent Fund’s dividend payment system, with a submission deadline of Sept. 13. The Saige-sponsored cruise took place on Sept. 16. According to the RFP, presentations were slated to occur Sept. 17-19, overlapping the SFOF conference, which Saige Managing Director David Mack attended, according to a LinkedIn post and photos obtained by The Alaska Current.
Peter Corsell, Saige’s board chairman and co-owner, appears to have joined the cruise and to have socialized with Crum.
From a field of three competing bids, DOR chose Saige on Oct. 15. Announcing the AI-driven systems overhaul in a December press release, current North Slope Borough Finance Director and then-Crum deputy Fadil Limani praised Saige as a key partner helping “to advance Governor Dunleavy’s initiative striving to be at the forefront of digital innovation.”
A second DOR RFP worth $1 million was issued in February 2025, for a vendor to analyze the agency’s payroll processes and look for improvements. DOR awarded that contract to Saige the following month, over two competing bids.
The State Financial Officers Foundation and Saige Consulting did not respond to requests for comment.
Crum “Circumvented His Fiduciary Duties Intentionally”
According to the Dunleavy review, in early 2024, Commissioner Crum explored tapping the $3 billion Constitutional Budget Reserve (CBR) “as a source of funds to advance state initiatives.” Because its purpose is to cover state budget gaps, the CBR is subject to increased scrutiny from the legislature and restricted to safe, liquid assets, which should preclude private equity, because of its inherent risk and illiquidity.
Throughout the fall – concurrent to the Saige-sponsored SFOF conference – Crum and his staff contacted private equity fund managers with a focus on infrastructure. One of those funds was I Squared Capital, where Saige Chairman Corsell, who cruised glaciers with Crum, was a partner.
Another was DigitalBridge, which Gov. Dunleavy had been courting for data center development, with personal tours of sites in Anchorage and Fairbanks. DigitalBridge sent Crum deal terms in January. Over the next several months, the firm’s managing director, Severin White, traveled to Alaska multiple times, and Dunleavy traveled to his subsidiary’s Las Vegas headquarters.
The report noted that Crum “received input regarding his investment choices from members” of SFOF and a fiduciary expert connected to the group, but that no one “carried out standard data-intensive investment diligence procedures.”
From May through July, Crum developed a plan to put $225 million of CBR funds into three separate $75 million private equity deals for in-state digital infrastructure with firms he deemed complementary. The in-state distinction in the report matters because of controversial losses incurred by the Permanent Fund, which ended its in-state investing program due to the potential for conflicts of interest and conflicts with its mission of maximizing returns.
Contradicting Dunleavy’s review findings, Crum has told reporters that none of the investments were in-state. “It was actually directly written into the documents that this is not for in-state investment,” Crum said, according to Anchorage Daily News. “The idea on that is, you want to actually invest on the merits.”
Crum forged ahead with his plan by exploiting legal loopholes and responding to legislative oversight with a misleading letter. This all unfolded against the backdrop of a pitched battle over SB 183, a bill compelling greater fiscal transparency from the Dunleavy administration into oil tax revenues. The governor vetoed it, and the legislature countered with a rare bipartisan override, as Crum was making his way out the door to launch his own gubernatorial bid.
As details of the former revenue commissioner’s deal with DigitalBridge came to light, pressure mounted on Dunleavy for answers. In October 2025, the governor launched an independent review through a law firm that formerly employed Attorney General Stephen Cox, who is friends with Crum and his close allies.
In 2024, Cox attended the SFOF conference and in the days after, joined SFOF executives, Crum, and Limani for a trout fishing trip on the Kenai River. It is unclear who paid for the revenue commissioner and his deputy.
Concluding that Crum had not engaged in conflicts of interest and omitting the governor’s own history wooing DigitalBridge, the Dunleavy review was clearly light on scrutiny – particularly given the evidence presented in this reporting. It also struck a gentle tone: The report catalogued extensive misconduct, but said it raised “significant concerns” whether Crum breached his duties, not that he definitively did.
Other Alaskan officials haven’t been so kind. “It’s pretty clear to me that the ex-Commissioner circumvented his fiduciary duties intentionally,” declared Senate Finance Co-Chair Bert Stedman, adding, “I think he should be personally liable.”
Neither Attorney General Cox nor his office responded to a request for comment.
“Power Generation: The Arctic Transmission Corridor“
With the release of the DigitalBridge findings in January, the public learned of the two other $75 million CBR private equity deals. Crum allocated, but did not sign them before his departure, and they were subsequently cancelled by his successor. The review curiously redacted the names of the firms, but they are described enough in an appendix to point to their identities: Blackstone and I Squared Capital.
Through 2025, Corsell, his business partner Larry Kellerman, and their company Twenty First Century Utilities (TFC) were deeply tied to I Squared. Corsell served on its Operating Committee, and led its tech funds. Kellerman is also the Chief Power Officer of Fermi, a hyperscale data center developer founded by former Energy Secretary Rick Perry, where he was the architect of a 17 GW data center.
Representing TFC, Corsell and Kellerman spoke on a panel about power generation in the Arctic transmission corridor with DigitalBridge Managing Partner Severin White at the NSB Oil & Gas Forum last August – after Crum’s departure, but before the DigitalBridge scandal broke, suggesting broader involvement in the Crum deal with other administration officials than the governor’s review disclosed. NSB Finance Director and former Crum deputy Limani moderated the panel. Both Gov. Dunleavy and NSB Mayor Patkotak were keynote speakers.
Sometime in the last six months of 2025, TFC formed a public-private partnership with the NSB to build a natural gas utility called North Slope Power that will initially produce 3 GW, but scale up to 10 gigawatt. If fully realized, the Arctic plant will have the highest capacity globally, and unleash reserves estimated at 30 trillion cubic feet in one of the most delicate and rapidly changing ecosystems in the world.
For context, the largest natural gas plant in operation today is 9.5 gigawatts in Dubai; in Alaska, it’s 347 megawatts. One gigawatt can power approximately 876,000 households per year. With Alaska having about 270,000 households, this project far exceeds the residential (and commercial) energy demand in the state. The reserves equate to roughly one year of total natural gas consumption for the entire United States.
In late March, Corsell, Kellerman, Patkotak, and Limani trekked to Houston for a major global energy summit, known as the “Davos of Energy,” to pitch North Slope Power to investors. NSB will tap its $1.3 billion Permanent Fund to help finance the deal, providing a direct equity stake to the Arctic Circle community. Whatever sum it could contribute pales in comparison to estimates of up to $40 billion for construction, but regardless, a loss could be devastating to the long-term financial stability of the region.
There is no public record of any formal bid process for this multi-billion dollar project, nor has its ownership structure been disclosed. But in a similar and related public-private partnership, Alaska gave Glenfarne a 75% equity stake to construct the Alaska LNG pipeline. TFC did recently register a new Alaskan corporation that appears to be a vehicle for this project. The filing lists substantial stakes for Kellerman and a family office where Corsell appears to be an investor.
The entity was formed in Delaware on July 16, 2025, squarely in the period when, according to Dunleavy’s report, Crum was pitching the governor on his private equity plan for the rainy day fund.
Patkotak, Limani, and Kellerman did not respond to requests for comment.
“Uncovering Waste, Fraud & Abuse in the States”
Bottomline, a contender for two major state contracts sponsored a cruise for a political nonprofit tied to the state official overseeing the awards for those contracts.
Subsequently, an executive at that company stood to reap another $75 million in taxpayer money for one of his other companies.
After that deal fell through, the executive inked an even bigger deal to build the world’s largest natural gas plant with a different state agency, but involving many of the same public officials, many of whom are stonewalling public accountability.
Crum’s actions belie his claims of fiduciary duty. According to the Dunleavy review: “Mr. Crum’s deviations from the non-routine investment protocol, overall lack of diligence during the investment process, and other issues raise significant concerns about whether he met his statutory fiduciary duties.”
The State Financial Officers Foundation touts its members’ records in “uncovering waste, fraud & abuse in the states” in an annual report. The 2025 edition curiously does not claim Alaska as a member state, nor does it mention its 2025 Vice Chair.
Lauren Windsor
Lauren Windsor is the executive producer of The Undercurrent, an independent investigative news webshow, sponsored by American Family Voices, a progressive nonprofit she leads. Her reporting to expose Jan. 6 deniers formed the basis for "Gonzo for Democracy,” a documentary she wrote, directed, and produced. Specializing in communications strategy, Lauren is a partner in Democracy Partners and Mike Lux Media. She has appeared on ABC, CNN, MSNBC, and Newsnation. Her work has additionally been featured on CBS, NBC, The New York Times, Politico, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, among others.
