How CIA officer David Rush, caught with $40M gold bars engineered most significant financial crime in agencys history: sources

The early morning tranquility of Snowpine Place, a residential street in upmarket Ashburn, Virginia, was suddenly shattered on May 18 by an FBI raid.Agents in tactical gear swarmed the block of well-kept homes at 6:00 a.m., one shouting into a bullhorn, “This is the FBI.We have a warrant for your arrest.

Come out with your hands up.”A local disturbed by the commotion looked out to spot his neighbor, CIA agent David Rush, being led out in handcuffs, as reported on NBC4 Washington.In total, the raid saw feds remove 303 gold bars worth some $40 million, which were government property, 35 luxury wristwatches and $2 million in cash from his residence.If proven, it would be “the most significant financial crime, measured in dollars, in the history of the CIA,” Tim Weiner, author of “The Mission,” a 21st century history of the CIA,” told The Post.Rush, 51, who is married, is currently being held in jail after a judge deemed him a flight risk.He allegedly engineered an audacious scheme to rip the agency off in plain sight, according to sources and reports.He now stands accused by sources within the fed agencies not just of pilfering gold bars, but bluffing his way into the CIA — where he worked for around 17 years starting in 2009 — and fabricating most of his resume, including claims he was a navy pilot and universities he had attended.Rush was the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology, but the agency has been tight-lipped about what his exact role entailed.The agency’s joint announcement of his arrest alongside the FBI on May 27 said he had made requests for the gold bars for “work-related expenses” but gave little information beyond that.Sources have since claimed Rush had a top security clearance within the agency, and that he had set up a fake fund related to “continuity of government” — the programs designed to keep the federal government operating in the most dire of circumstances, such as nuclear war or a catastrophic natur...