This looks shockingly like the kickbacks many states have made to special interest groups. My state, Washington, has done similar things with racist policies discriminating against Asian and white people in housing, and giving billions to tribes.
Why should we believe NYT? They've been very soft on Trump the last 10 years, why wouldn't the slant reporting on Trump's enemies or potential rivals?
Also, it's possible they're running the Hillary Clinton playbook on Walz. Endless accusations and investigations that somehow never quite make it to the level of credible, but also never got away.