U.S. federal investigators have arrested a former CIA official for alleged fraud after the agency found separately that he’d stashed more than $40 million in gold bars, luxury watches and cash in his Virginia home.
David Rush is described as a recently departed senior-level CIA employee by the New York Times, citing people familiar with the case. Rush allegedly falsely claimed he was a member of the Navy Reserve in order to claim tens of thousands of dollars in military leave pay, according to court documents seen by the Times and other outlets. He is facing charges related to the theft of public money.
Although not the subject of the alleged theft case, the CIA found 303 1-kg gold bars valued at $43.8 million (using Thursday’s gold price around $4,500 an oz.), $2 million in cash and nearly three-dozen watches such as Rolexes in a sweep of his house. Rush received the loot from the government for “work-related expenses” between November and March, according to the court papers.
The government had been looking for it, prosecutors said in the papers. It wasn’t clear what kind of work project would require making such massive outlays, though CIA units regularly carried millions of dollars during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, for example.
Joint work
The FBI arrested Rush on May 19 after the agency alerted the bureau that he’d inflated his academic credentials to qualify for the military leave pay.
“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 agencies said in a joint statement.
A detention hearing on his charges is scheduled this week. Rush’s attorney and representatives didn’t respond to media requests for comments.
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