A former CIA official, David Rush, is accused of taking 303 gold bars worth more than $40 million from the agency and storing them at his home in Virginia, according to court documents reported by NBC News and The New York Times.
The FBI raided Rush’s home on May 18 and recovered approximately 303 gold bars, each weighing about one kilogram, along with nearly three dozen luxury watches, many of them Rolexes, according to the affidavit filed in Alexandria, Virginia.
Court records state Rush received a large quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for “work-related expenses” between November 2025 and March 2026. During an internal review, the CIA was unable to locate the gold or significant amounts of the currency, the filings say.
The CIA and FBI confirmed the case in a joint statement after Rush’s arrest, which followed the agency alerting the bureau on May 19. “After a C.I.A. internal investigation identified 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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The charging documents describe Rush as a former senior-executive-level employee at a U.S. government agency. The filings also allege he misrepresented his academic credentials and falsely claimed to have been discharged from the Navy Reserve, according to The New York Times.
Rush was being held ahead of a detention hearing scheduled in the coming days, NBC News reported.
