A former senior CIA officer has been arrested after federal agents discovered more than 300 gold bars worth over $40 million stashed inside his Virginia home, gold he had reportedly checked out from the agency for “work-related expenses” and never returned.
How was CIA insider David Rush exposed?
David Rush, who held a senior management position at the CIA with top secret-level clearance, was arrested on May 19 after the CIA’s own internal investigation flagged potential violations of the law and referred the case to the FBI, according to a joint statement from both agencies cited by NBC News.
“After a CIA internal investigation identified potential violations of the law, CIA Director John Ratcliffe referred the information to the FBI for a law enforcement investigation,” the statement said.
Between November and March, Rush made multiple requests for funds from the agency, including large amounts of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars, which he claimed were needed for work-related purposes, according to court documents cited in reports.
When the CIA went to check on the whereabouts of the gold and currency, it could not locate them. On May 18, FBI agents searched Rush’s home and found approximately 303 gold bars, each weighing around one kilogram, with a total estimated value exceeding $40 million, per an FBI affidavit reports noted. Agents also seized nearly $2 million in US currency and 35 luxury watches, most of them Rolexes.
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Rush has been charged with criminal theft of public money and is currently being held in jail while awaiting a detention hearing. The only formal charge filed so far relates to him inflating his academic credentials and fraudulently collecting military leave pay worth tens of thousands of dollars, according to the New York Times. Here’s all you need to know about David Rush.
David Rush: 5 things to know
- Rush held a senior executive-level position at the CIA with top secret-level security clearance, according to court documents that multiple reports cited.
- He applied to work for the US government three times before finally being accepted in 2009. In his application, he claimed degrees from Clemson University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a certification from the US Naval Test Pilot School and said he was a Navy pilot and a thesis adviser at the Air Force Institute of Technology.
- None of his credentials checked out. Investigators say he never graduated from either university, held no pilot’s license with the FAA and had been discharged from the Navy, not serving as he claimed and in order to fraudulently collect military leave pay, according to the reports.
- Rush reportedly lied about his background to his employers for nearly two decades. His false credentials passed through multiple rounds of government background checks and continuous vetting.
- When FBI agents raided his Virginia home on May 18, they found 303 gold bars worth over $40 million, around $2 million in cash and 35 luxury watches, most of them Rolexes and all of them allegedly taken from the CIA under the cover of “work-related expenses.”
