California High-Speed Rail Chief Ian Choudri Resigns Amid Expenses Scandal

Ian Choudri, chief executive of California's high-speed rail authority, abruptly resigned on Wednesday, according to a report from The Guardian. The authority oversees the troubled project linking Los Angeles and San Francisco, which the outlet described as embattled.

The resignation came more than a month after California's office of the inspector general, a state watchdog, determined that the agency had misused public funds, The Guardian reported. The outlet's headline stated that the agency "misused over $600,000 in public funds," and framed the departure as part of an expenses scandal.

According to the summary of the report, the inspector general released its findings in September. That summary cuts off before describing the watchdog's conclusions in detail, so the specifics of the findings are not available in this account.

The Guardian's article was written by Uwa Ede-Osifo.

The available material does not say what reasons, if any, Choudri gave for leaving, who will lead the authority next, or how the agency responded to the findings. Nor does it say whether the watchdog's findings were the sole basis for the resignation.

The summary available for this story ends mid-sentence, so details beyond those listed here are not reported.

Sources: The Guardian: California high-speed rail chief quits amid billowing expenses scandal.