FBI Arrests CIA Official With $40 Million In Gold Bars In His Home (nytimes.com)
- Reference: 0183438426
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/05/28/2053250/fbi-arrests-cia-official-with-40-million-in-gold-bars-in-his-home
- Source link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/27/us/politics/fbi-arrest-cia-official-gold-bars.html
> The court papers describe Mr. Rush as a "former senior executive service-level employee at a United States government agency." People familiar with the investigation say he until very recently held a senior position at the C.I.A. In a joint statement, the C.I.A. and F.B.I. said the arrest occurred on May 19, after the agency alerted the bureau. "After a C.I.A. internal investigation identified potential violations of the law, C.I.A. Director John Ratcliffe referred the information to the F.B.I. for a law enforcement investigation," the statement said.
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> From last November to March, the court papers say, Mr. Rush asked for, and received, "a significant quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses." When the C.I.A. conducted a review of where the gold and currency were stashed, the agency was "unable to locate the gold bars or significant amounts of the foreign currency," according to court papers.
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> On May 18, F.B.I. agents searched Mr. Rush's home and found "approximately 303 gold bars, each of which weighed approximately one kilogram," according to an affidavit. Based on the price of gold, the affidavit said, the estimated value of the gold exceeded $40 million. Investigators also seized nearly three dozen luxury watches, many of them Rolexes. The court papers do not indicate why Mr. Rush appears to have kept so much gold, and $2 million in U.S. currency, in his home, or what work project would have required him to amass such wealth.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/27/us/politics/fbi-arrest-cia-official-gold-bars.html
Re: Gold bars you say? (Score:2)
Just the headline seems like a hilarious situation.
But why keep evidence of embezzlement at home?
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> But why keep evidence of embezzlement at home?
Yeah, I think they forgot to include "stupid" in the long list of his faults.
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the answer to that one is actually kind of obvious, IMHO where do put large number of gold bars that does not result in people asking a lot of questions?
Safety deposit boxes? - I guess if spread it around enough separate banks, you have some privacy accessing the box (usually) but you still are not the only one handling it, gold is very very put much of it a given box and it might raise questions. One nosy bank manager might become a real problem quickly.
Bury it in the woods? - That works unless someone fi
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Cast it into models of the eiffel tower
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He wasn't that stupid but greed got the best of him. He already had way more than enough to disappear somewhere under a new identity.
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> But why keep evidence of embezzlement at home?
I dearly hope the gold was hidden in the now traditional freezer.
But you do got to wonder. If I had $40 million, I'd be so retired to a tropical island without an extradition treaty. I just looked at [1]a list [rednoticelawyers.com] and it's pretty slim pickings. The biggest problem is you're stuck in whatever country you pick. There's no way you're travelling internationally, at least, not without a good fake identity.
[1] https://rednoticelawyers.com/blog/countries-with-no-extradition-treaty-with-us/
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If you're willing to settle for only $30 million, that should be enough to obtain a birth certificate and proof of residency in some remote village.
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> But you do got to wonder. If I had $40 million, I'd be so retired to a tropical island without an extradition treaty.
If I stole $40M from the CIA, I'd be worried about a lot more than extradition.
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> But why keep evidence of embezzlement at home?
While it has a very very strong smell of embezzlement, this line from TFS has me wondering:
"The only charge lodged against David Rush is that he inflated his academic credentials and obtained military leave pay worth tens of thousands of dollars."
Are the watches, gold, and money actually legitimately his and simply outlandish?
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Yeah, he should have put it in a brokerage account for a couple of years and then returned it as surplus to requirements.
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Don got a gold bar in his knickers after hearing that.
Pardon. (Score:4, Insightful)
He could buy a pardon and still have $39 million left in gold bars. The Grifter in Cheat likes gold too.
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I don't think it will work. The dude was obviously in charge of fixing the elections for the democrats.
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Then it clearly hasn't worked.
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I plead Poe's Law on this post.
But to the facts: his political affiliation is not clear. There are those who are [1]trying to tie this to the Democrats by pointing out the time-line. [hindustantimes.com] The thefts allegedly began in 2009, during the first Obama administration.
On the other hand, it appears the overwhelming majority of the theft (the tens of millions of dollars) occurred [2]between November 2025 and March 2026. [abc7news.com]
Whatever administration this guy served under (and he served under administrations run by both parties) the a
[1] https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/excia-officer-david-rushs-political-party-links-in-focus-as-fbi-finds-gold-bars-worth-40-million-at-his-home-101779983480597.html
[2] https://abc7news.com/post/former-cia-officer-allegedly-defrauded-government-lying-credentials-complaint/19186288/?userab=kabc_content_recs-577*variant_c_trending-2482,otv_web_content_rec-539*variant_c_trending-2268,otv_search_page_design_unification-546*variant_a_control-2299,abcn_popular_reads_exp-542*variant_b_7days_filter-2288
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Don't know why this is marked troll. Pardons are clearly set at $1 million. [1]https://thehill.com/homenews/a... [thehill.com]
[1] https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5319932-trump-pardon-paul-walczak/
Ordering $40 million in gold bars on expences :o (Score:2)
Ordering $40 million in gold bars on [1]work related expenses [indiatimes.com] must have raised flags /s
[1] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/us/news/david-rush-investigation-fbi-uncovers-millions-in-gold-bars-at-former-cia-officials-home/articleshow/131361386.cms
Re: Ordering $40 million in gold bars on expences (Score:2)
Had to gas up the team's Hummer.
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I guess that is what gets most fraudsters in the end. Seems like the guy made a career out of false claims and progressively bolder lies. Probably started to believe he could away with anything.
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Looking at America today, who can blame him?
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He told his Ferengi superior that he could keep the latinum.
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> Ordering $40 million in gold bars on [1]work related expenses [indiatimes.com] must have raised flags /s
I can only imagine: "Hey boss, I need to buy some new server racks. The vendor only accepts gold ingots."
Snark aside, it was probably more of the form "Hey boss, I need to bribe some third world dictator with a funny hat so I need some untraceable gold."
Still, you'd think there would be some follow up. "So Dave, how'd that bribery scheme turn out? Did the 3rdWDwaFH do the thing we wanted?"
[1] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/us/news/david-rush-investigation-fbi-uncovers-millions-in-gold-bars-at-former-cia-officials-home/articleshow/131361386.cms
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Well, maybe the bribe was supposed to be $100 million, he figured that $60 million would work and took the other $40 million home. It's not as if one gets receipts for that sort of thing.
This guy was hired way back in 2009! (Score:1)
That’s Obama, Trump1, Biden, and well into Trump2.
What’s more, he skated in with obviously fake educational and military credentials.
Sigh.
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Meanwhile, I often can't even get new clients to believe the demonstrably provable skills I actually have. One has to wonder what his magic trick was...
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Social skills.
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Maybe, or maybe leverage, like blackmail info.
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>> Meanwhile, I often can't even get new clients to believe the demonstrably provable skills I actually have. One has to wonder what his magic trick was...
> Social skills.
They do come in handy in the spy business. Maybe more than one's education and work background.
Cover blown (Score:2)
And now his cover is blown. Isn't that the whole point of the CIA, lie with confidence, cheat and deceive. Maybe he pissed the wrong people off and cut them out.
uh (Score:4, Interesting)
> From last November to March, the court papers say, Mr. Rush asked for, and received, "a significant quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses."
The problem with the CIA is not necessarily that they exist, but that they apparently operate without oversight. What the fuck is this?
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> Maybe I'm just naive enough to believe that checks and balances have to work this way, but this is the first example in a while where it seems to me like the system is working.
They're the CIA. They don't need the FBI to wipe their ass for them, they chose not to wipe it. But the more important point is how was this considered a legitimate request to begin with? The only reason he'd need all that would be for some nefarious shit, like when the CIA imported cocaine in USFS planes.
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Or they needed to bribe or hire a bunch of people. "I can buy off some top-ranking Russian officials, just need a couple hundred pounds of gold to do it." Or maybe he said he was posing as an arms dealer. There could be lots of reasons, including valid ones.
From the perspective of a foreign adversary, everything the CIA does is nefarious. Doing dastardly deeds on our behalf is their job.
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>> The only reason he'd need all that would be for some nefarious shit
> Or they needed to bribe or hire a bunch of people.
That's not an "or".
> everything the CIA does is nefarious. Doing dastardly deeds on our behalf is their job.
I am not paying taxes for the purpose of having feds violate the law, national or international.
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CIA deals with external threats (from outside the country), FBI deals with INTERNAL threats, aka citizens, home-grown terrorists, etc... CIA likely can't investigate as they don't usually handle internal threats, and lastly, if they think there may be more to this (more people found guilty) they may not do an internal investigation to let others they are eying know they are under investigation.
FBI and CIA have a known history of not relaying information, which is supposedly how 9-11-2021 happened. Even if
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> CIA deals with external threats (from outside the country)
CIA is supposed to deal with external threats. Is this rule rigidly adhered to? Given what we have seen from the Wyden Siren, I seriously doubt that the CIA is holding to this rule.
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The CIA can't just make arrests on US soil. They actually do need the FBI to do that. That's another form of oversight.
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>> The problem with the CIA is not necessarily that they exist, but that they apparently operate without oversight. What the fuck is this?
> Isn't the FBI arresting him a form of oversight?
No, the reason the FBI arrested him was because the CIA reported him to them.
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1000X ^^THIS
I am not say we never as nation need to conduct clandestine operations, but having an entire clandestine service is fundamentally at odds with the concept of representative governance, day light, and democracy.
The CIA should not exist. It should be shuttered and actually operations running agents and gathering intel should be returned to the DOD, and even if for reasons of operational security a considerable amount of activity has to be done off the record, the people running those activities s
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> The problem with the CIA is not necessarily that they exist, but that they apparently operate without oversight. What the fuck is this?
That way no one gets in trouble when you do heinous illegal shit.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
[2]https://www.theguardian.com/us... [theguardian.com]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_involvement_in_Contra_cocaine_trafficking
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/oct/09/cia-torture-black-site-enhanced-interrogation
Ahem (Score:2)
> significant amounts of the foreign currency
I guess they are afraid of saying those were Russia roubles?
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If he was just embezzling, why would he want a worthless currency? Euros or Pounds would make more sense.
This is the guy who got caught. (Score:1)
This is the guy who got caught with only $40 million gold (and rising). Imagine how much this agency has skimmed off from US taxpayers over the decades.
And then there's the Pentagon, which has never passed an audit.
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> Imagine how much this agency has skimmed off from US taxpayers over the decades.
This is not how this works. It is all but certain that this was part of black budget stash. Typically, such off-the-books money are not from taxes, but from illegal activities (drugs, weapon, blackmail) that CIA has national security "license" to engage in.
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I know a guy doing it out in the open without consequence.
The CIA really loves this kind of recruit (Score:2)
I think leadership at CIA, at some level, knew the guy was a fraud. He b.s.'d his way into a naval officer commission. B.s.'d his way into the CIA front door after three attempts. Remember, CIA exists purely to break the rules in order to achieve its goals. You don't accomplish that hiring normal people.
yeah that's how it works (Score:3)
The CIA doesn't do a lot of the overseas work with its own hands (putting aside the death squads made of former special operations soldiers). It's the "how do you do fellow kids" problem - how would anyone from the CIA infiltrate an organization overseas when the CIA officers are clearly not native? Finding competent sociopaths who speak the right language is hard enough (i.e., some white guy speaking Arabic could be sent to Africa), but even if the CIA officer happened to be of the right ethnicity there would be obvious differences in accent, local knowledge etc.
What the CIA does is it cultivates local sources, and those local sources need to be paid. Sometimes the payment is semi-honorable (e.g., pulling strings to get a kid into a good US college) but usually it's gold or a fancy watch. So this bozo claimed to have a bunch of sources who needed payment and thus requisitioned gold and watches to pay them, only he didn't. And he didn't realize that this is such an obvious way to steal that the CIA actually checks up on this.
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Blackmail and threats are cheaper than paying gold.
Inventing a boogeyman is cheaper still. Less likely to blow up in your face.
Sounds like a team effort (Score:2)
I could be wrong, but this sounds like a number of people had to be involved to pull this off.
I suspicious of the whole story down to wondering if there really is a "David Rush" and if so, was the person arrested even that David Rush".
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Yea, the CIA is basically a government mafia at this point. This guy must have done something really bad to the wrong people (probably other government pedophiles) to get thrown under the bus this way.
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The executive branch is basically a mafia at this point too. He's probably just feeling the vibe.
Can we just start over already? (Score:1)
The CIA has been doing nothing but making everything it touches turn to shit since the cold war. Just wipe the slate clean and start over.
Performance Metric: Skuls Dug: Excellent (Score:2)
Whether it should be or not, the business of a working CIA agent is entirely crime and mostly bribery. I personally doubt any disincentives for self-enrichment are even on the performance review.
Who every hired him (Score:2)
Needs to be fired. It's simple, if you don't vet people hired into a senior position of a federal agency, then you ought to be terminated as well. Actual qualified people apply for jobs and are skipped over to hire conmen. The process is broken and people should be deeply disturbed, both in terms of violating the public trust but also for the implications to national security.
Obligatory Juvenal (Score:2)
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Why was original post modded ??? (Score:3)
All references that had his fake background, degrees, etc have been removed !!! The CIA failed to do a good back ground on him before he was hired !
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This raises a very important question. If the CIA are taking shortcuts and making assumptions about anything, we should not be making assumptions ourselves that the CIA aren't doing the same elsewhere. I am, however, still waiting for biolabs and WMDs to turn up in Iraq - something for which they appear to have ALSO taken one person's unsupported word for. They also ratted out their own officers in retaliation for questioning the existence of "yellowcake" (that turned out not to exist).
I'd be wary of claimi
Re: Why was original post modded ??? (Score:2)
Coordinated Information Apparatus Battlefield Earth
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It's for "import".
[1]The C is for cocaine [counterpunch.org].
[1] https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/04/air-cocaine-the-wild-true-story-of-drug-running-arms-smuggling-and-contras-at-a-small-airstrip-in-clintons-arkansas/
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> Bah, they were always like that. I in CIA is for incompentence .
There needs to be a word for "the fear of making a typo while insulting someone online." There probably already is one in German.
Re:Why was original post modded ??? (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't just taking shortcuts though this wholesale negligence.
Once in a while you hear such and such President/CEO of ACME never really graduated from Some Small University. They lied to get past the HR gate got hired as manager or director of Widget production 15 years ago where they were not an officer not responsible for signature on public records etc, later got promoted and nobody went back and checked up on stuff.
This though, the claims this guy made were shall we say rather remarkable for such a short career, service in multiple military branches, a graduate degree, pilot, managing a lot of people, etc.. A bunch of things that should have said to anyone reading the resume, this sounds perhaps a little puffed up, maybe I should check on SOME of this stuff which should have produced a few easily obtained artifacts. Obviously zero effort was made to verify any of it. Clearly nobody did any DD here not the hiring manager, not OMB..
I can't say I have run down every line on every CV of everyone I have hired but I usually at least go, ok says he was such and such at XYZ corp, lets look their about-us page on wayback machine, ok there is a picture of him a title that is near enough...so that checks.. oh he is a licensed PI, ok I can check the states website for that.. Then you just consider the claims, like ok says he graduated in 2000 and in 2003 was president of XYZ corp, again you check out XYZ oh fine it looks like they have about 4 employees and rented office in suburban Cincinnati; whatever, on the other hand if it is a 4000+ people and they have a XYZ Parkway named after them, you pick the phone and check that out.
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Graduating a college is not an indicator of successful business leaders.
Creators of the business and/or people whom have worked their way up still exist out there. Its just that we have fewer small businesses than mega corps run by oligarchs
That being said, lying about it to get a job is a red flag.
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In addition , just because an agency asks for verification of things like employment, criminal record, etc. doesn’t mean the agencies they are requesting it from reply. If an agency doesn’t reply, then they simply get back a note saying no information provided at that point someone has to make a call.
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[1]https://www.npr.org/2026/05/28... [npr.org]
"In his application to enter the Senior Executive Service level ranks that RUSHsubmitted to his former U.S. Government employer on October 25, 2018, RUSH stated he was agraduate of the United States Air Force Test Pilot School, and he was the current Director of Testfor a 145-person, 18-aircraft joint Army/Navy weapons test organization, despite his militaryrecords, discussed above, indicating that he separated from the Navy in 2015. In this sameapplication, RUSH stated he h
[1] https://www.npr.org/2026/05/28/nx-s1-5837308/cia-officer-gold-bars