Former CIA official pleads guilty in case involving $40M in gold bars

A former CIA officer pleaded guilty in federal court this week to wire fraud in a case that involved more than $40 million in gold bars.

David Rush, a former intelligence officer, admitted the gold was only the beginning and that he was part of a ploy involving a $145 million scam tied to luxury real estate and the sharing of sensitive information with a foreign government, The New York Times reported.

Rush admitted he disclosed “the existence and certain descriptive information of a U.S. government clandestine human source,” The Washington Post reported.

“The disclosure of such information could endanger the safety and life of the human source and the U.S. government officers working with the source and jeopardize the U.S. government’s ability to recruit human sources, who rely on the U.S. government’s assurance of absolute secrecy,” according to court documents.

The government he gave the information to has not been disclosed.

He was arrested in May when investigators found nearly 300 gold bars, worth about $40 million, hidden in the basement of his home in Virginia. He gathered the gold through a fake classified program he had set up. He said the gold would be needed for “continuity of government operations,” typically a period of natural disasters or attacks, the Times said.

Through that program, he bought the property in the Palm Beach area of South Florida. He planned to have renovations done so he could resell the property at a profit, according to the Times. The money was transferred from a government contractor to a holding company. The contractor expected to be reimbursed.

He also allegedly took private charter flights worth about $1.8 million on the government’s dime that had no legitimate purpose, prosecutors said.

The Associated Press said Rush cost the government about $194 million in all.

The Post likened the case to a spy novel, which also raised questions about how Rush got a position with access to sensitive information when the agency couldn’t uncover lies about his education and military service.

He said he graduated from Clemson University with a bachelor’s degree and a master’s from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Investigators said he did not attend either school, the AP reported.

He also said he was a former Navy pilot, which he was not. He was in the Navy, enlisting in 1997 and retiring in 2015 as a lieutenant in the Navy Reserve.

Several members of the CIA and the FBI are on leave as the investigation into how he was cleared to work for the spy agency is conducted, the Post reported.

Rush joined the agency in 2009 and was most recently a senior executive in the Directorate of Science and Technology division, which develops the spy tools, the newspaper said.

CIA director John Ratcliffe said Rush “abused his position and betrayed the public trust and should be held fully accountable for his actions.”

Rush is scheduled to be sentenced in January and faces 20 years in prison.

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