Former CIA officer accused of stealing gold and stashing the gold bars in his home.
A former CIA officer who had top-level clearance has been accused of secretly stashing millions of dollars in gold bars in his home that he said he needed for “work-related expenses”. Rush, who held a management position, was charged with criminal theft of public money in a complaint filed last week in the Eastern District of Virginia.CIA and FBI jointly issued a statement on the charges against Rush and said: “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 FBI is working closely with our partners at the CIA and the Department of Justice as we continue to investigate this matter fully. We are committed to following the facts, ensuring accountability, and pursuing justice in accordance with the law.”
David Rush is not who he claimed to be: Who is the ex-CIA officer?
Rush worked for the government in various capacities, though he is not what he claimed to be, and the departments also remained in the dark about his original identity. Between November 2025 and March of this year, Rush allegedly made several requests to the government to obtain large amounts of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses. Since Rush is a high-level officer, not many details have been revealed. It is also not clear how long he worked for the CIA, but reports indicate that he was working for the CIA until March this year. Reports confirmed that he was at that time working for the CIA and the agency could not locate the gold bars or determine their intended use.When FBI agents searched his home on May 18, they found approximately 303 gold bars, in a value estimated to exceed $40 million, the complaint says. They also recovered $2 million in US currency and 35 luxury watches. It is also not known why FBI started the investigation against him.
Rush showed false degree to Navy, government
The FBI also accused Rush of lying to the US Navy when he enlisted in 1997 by providing them with transcripts and other records falsely indicating he had earned an undergraduate degree from Clemson University. Because of his degree, Rush was commissioned as an ensign in the US Navy Reserves in 2004 and was honorably discharged in 2015.After that, he applied for employment with the federal government three times citing degrees from Clemson University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Naval Postgraduate School. He also listed those schools when he applied for his security clearance.Later, in 2018, he submitted an application to enter senior executive service and claimed to be a graduate of the United States Air Force Test Pilot School, as well as the current director of test for a 145-person, 18-aircraft joint Army/Navy weapons test organization, the complaint says.
