![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gold-bars-DMV74TSL3ZH47A3L5HXZH73ZHM.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA former senior CIA official with top secret-level clearance is accused of stealing hundreds of gold bars worth more than US$40 million (NZ$68 million) from the federal government and stashing them in his Virginia home.<\/p>\n
David Rush was arrested and charged with criminal theft of public money last week, according to federal court filings.<\/p>\n
From November to March, Rush requested and received a “significant quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses”, according to an affidavit from an FBI agent investigating the case.<\/p>\n
The affidavit says its unclear what Rush intended to use the funds for, but that a portion of it was found in a storage space near his office.<\/p>\n
Federal officials searched his home on May 18 and seized more than 300 gold bars with an estimated value of more than US$40 million (NZ$68 million), according to the affidavit. They also seized roughly US$2 million (NZ$3.4 million) in US currency and some 35 luxury watches, many of them Rolexes. Rush was arrested the next day, the FBI said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
(Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n
The FBI affidavit concludes that there\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
The FBI said it was working with the CIA and Department of Justice in its investigation.<\/p>\n
Rush’s lawyer declined to comment on Thursday.<\/p>\n
It’s not clear what role Rush had at the CIA or when he left the agency. He’s described in court filings simply as a “former senior executive service-level employee at a United States government agency”. Spokespersons for the FBI declined to comment further, and the CIA didn\u2019t respond to an email.<\/p>\n
The FBI affidavit also notes that Rush appears to have lied for years about his education and military background. The bureau’s investigation found he had falsely claimed to be a Navy pilot and that he’d graduated from Clemson University in South Carolina and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.<\/p>\n
Instead, they found he had enlisted in the Navy in 1997 and then served in the US Navy Reserves from 2004 until 2015, when he was honourably discharged as a lieutenant. The affidavit states he does not appear to have underwent any evaluations as a pilot during that time, and he did not attend either college.<\/p>\n
Rush is being held in custody pending a hearing Friday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former senior CIA official with top secret-level clearance is accused of stealing hundreds of gold bars worth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[67,42,43,64,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-450099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}