Ex-CIA official arrested with $40 million in gold bars. Who is David Rush?

A former CIA official has been arrested with $40 million (Rs 383.24 crore) in gold bars.

David Rush has been accused of stealing over 300 gold bars from the agency and keeping them hidden at his Virginia residence. Rush, who has top secret clearance, has been charged with criminal theft of public property.

But who is Rush? What do we know about him? Let’s take a closer look.

Who is Rush?

According to USA Today, court documents identify Rush as a "former senior executive service-level employee at a United States Government agency". The New York Times reported that Rush previously worked for the Central Intelligence Agency.

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The Independent quoted an affidavit from the FBI as saying that Rush appears to have lied about his education and military background. The FBI determined that Rush lied about being a US Navy pilot and about graduating from Clemson University in South Carolina, as well as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.

Court documents identify Rush as a "former senior executive service-level employee at a United States Government agency". File image/Reuters

According to CNBC, Rush applied to work with the government on three occasions. The first time, he said he graduated from Clemson University in 2000. The second time, he claimed he had a graduate degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The third time, he said he had passed an aircraft test from the US Naval Test Pilot School. He also claimed to be a thesis adviser at the Air Force Institute of Technology.

The FBI inquiry found that he enlisted in the US Navy in 1997 and then served in the Naval Reserves from 2004 to 2015. At the time, Rush was honourably discharged as a lieutenant. According to the affidavit, Rush underwent no evaluations as a pilot during that period, nor did he attend either college. Rush, however, claimed to be in the Navy Reserves till 2025. Investigators also found no certificate or pilot’s licence registered to Rush with the Federal Aviation Administration.

How the case was cracked

NPR quoted an FBI affidavit as saying that Rush, from November to March, requested and received a "significant quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses".

The BBC quoted court documents as saying that the CIA "was unable to locate the gold bars or significant amounts of the foreign currency" during a review.

The government was also unable to locate "any record of Rush providing information to his employer regarding the disposition of the currency or gold bars that he received for work-related purposes", the documents added.

According to USA Today, the affidavit says that it remains unclear what he used the funds for. However, a portion of the expenses he requested was found in a storage space near his office.

Federal officials searched Rush’s home on May 18. They recovered over 300 gold bars with an estimated value of over $40 million (Rs 383.24 crore), according to the affidavit. They also seized around $2 million (Rs 19.16 crore) in US currency and some 35 luxury watches, many of them Rolexes.

Rush was arrested the next day, the FBI has said.

The FBI affidavit states that there is probable cause to believe that Rush "knowingly embezzled, stole, purloined, or knowingly converted a thing of value of the United States" for his personal use. The FBI has said it was working with the CIA and the Department of Justice.

"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 said in a statement. Rush has been sent to federal custody. He will be presented at a hearing next week in Alexandria, Virginia.

FAQs

1. Who is David Rush?

David Rush is a former senior executive service-level US government employee who previously worked for the CIA.

2. What is he accused of?

He is accused of stealing over 300 gold bars and large amounts of foreign currency meant for official use.

3. How much money was recovered?

Authorities recovered gold bars worth over $40 million (Rs 383.24 crore) and around $2 million (Rs 19.16 crore) in cash.

With inputs from agencies