Meet David Rush, the former CIA officer who hid 300 gold bars in his home as “work expenses”

A former CIA officer with the highest level of clearance is accused of secretly hiding millions of dollars in gold bars at his home that he said he needed for “work-related expenses.” Rush, who holds a management position, was charged with criminal theft of public funds in a lawsuit filed last week in the Eastern District of Virginia.“After an internal CIA investigation uncovered potential violations, CIA Director John Ratcliffe referred this information to the FBI for law enforcement investigation,” the CIA and FBI said in a joint statement on the charges against Rush.“The FBI is working closely with our partners at the CIA and Department of Justice to continue a comprehensive investigation into this matter. We are committed to pursuing the facts, pursuing accountability, and delivering justice in accordance with the law. “

David Rush Not who he claims to be: who is former cia official?

Rush worked for the government in various capacities, although he was not who he claimed to be, and departments were kept in the dark about his original identity. It is said that between November 2025 and March this year, Rush made multiple requests to the government, requesting large amounts of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses.Because Rush is a senior military officer, few details were revealed. It’s unclear how long he worked for the CIA, but reports suggest he worked for the agency until March of this year. Reports confirmed that he was working for the CIA at the time, and the agency was unable to locate the gold bars or determine their purpose.The indictment states that when FBI agents searched his home on May 18, they found approximately 303 gold bars estimated to be worth more than $40 million. They also recovered $2 million in U.S. currency and 35 luxury watches. It’s unclear why the FBI began investigating him.

Rush showed fake degrees to Navy and government

The FBI also accuses Rush of lying to the U.S. Navy when he enlisted in 1997, providing them with transcripts and other records that falsely showed he had earned an undergraduate degree from Clemson University. With his degree in hand, Rush was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserves in 2004 and was honorably discharged in 2015.He has since applied for federal employment three times with degrees from Clemson University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Naval Postgraduate School. He also listed the schools when he applied for a security clearance.Later, in 2018, he submitted an application for a senior management position and claimed to be a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and the current test director of a 145-person, 18-aircraft Army/Navy joint arms test organization, the indictment said.