WASHINGTON — The CIA officer found with $40 million in gold bars stashed at his home is accused of creating a fake top secret intelligence program to receive government funds for his personal enrichment, according to two people with knowledge of the ongoing investigation.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.David Rush has been accused of exploiting the spy agency’s elaborate secrecy precautions that strictly limit sensitive information around such top secret programs to only those who “need to know,” these people said.Rush is accused of creating a sham government contract as part of the program, the sources said, and inviting two of his CIA colleagues to participate in helping run it, they said.
One of those colleagues transferred millions of dollars to the invented program, the people familiar with the investigation said.Because Rush claimed the project was an ultrasecret “special access program,” his co-workers would have been prohibited from speaking about it with other employees, the people familiar with the investigation said.
They did not know whether the other employees were aware of the alleged scheme or were unwitting accomplices.The Washington Post first reported the allegations that Rush fabricated the program.Rush was arrested last month and charged with one count of theft of public money, accused of filing false time sheets by saying he was a member of the Naval Reserve.
Some of the accusations against him in court documents are far more serious.His lawyer had no comment Monday.Rush has not yet entered a plea.
On Friday, a judge ordered that he remain behind bars in Alexandria, Virginia, pending trial, siding with the prosecution’s argument that he posed a potential flight risk.He is no longer with the CIA.
The fictional program was supposed to involve contingency plans to keep the government operating in the event of a nuclear war or other dire emergency, one of the pe...