Ex-CIA official arrested after $40M in gold bars found at home
Federal agents arrested former senior CIA official David Rush after FBI agents seized roughly $40 million in gold bars from his home, federal court filings show. Prosecutors charged Rush with criminal theft of public money, alleging he took hundreds of gold bars while holding top-secret clearance. The discovery raises questions about how high-value government property went missing and could prompt tighter controls on secure federal inventories.
Hi, yes, 20-75 follow up questions here. To start: how many gold bars are there at the CIA generally
MARC in a Cold Climate69second: what, in your opinion as a headline writer, is a medium-sized fortune
Julia Is Waving, Not Drowning35look, like you never brought a pen home in your pocket, or one of the extra bagels from the breakfast platter
WarPigHand🇺🇦(🆘🇺🇸☎️)17So he had approximately 300 kilograms(661 lbs) of gold bars… that seems like that would take quite a few trips… wtf?
Loungewehr14I still have a stapler from my job in 1986. I'm sure it's worth a small fortune by now.
gengarro13If you can think of a better way to prop up a table with uneven legs I'd like to hear it
Ken MacLennan10did they get them from bob menendez, or does the fbi still have those
Horrified, Lydia9This is a very confusing story, I'd have to say badly written story. In the first para below, it says the CIA could not locate the gold bars [that were supposed to be?] In his home. The very next para details the FBI searching his home on a specific date and finding the gold.
Humming Along8And…how does NYT define “small”?
aquariously.bsky.social6I still have a giant 100 page stapler I borrowed from work about ten years ago. Should I stop feeling guilty?
ianVG5303 less now i guess
Grasso figlio di puttana4It’s untraceable currency - easily smelted and traded. Its value is stored in the medium - pretty good way to pay people when doing illegal stuff.
Aloysius Olberding4"20-75 follow up questions" 🤣
Scott Berfield ❌👑- May it happen today.4And can you just check them out?
suraventri.bsky.social4Where did they get them? A heist or is one guy at the CIA really into those gold infomercials and no one can stop him?
Jake3Listen, you want to forment a coupe? Pay an opposition party? Get guns to [redacted]? You need a universal, untraceable currency. The nyt article said that the guy literally requisitioned it! “Hey for this project I’m gunna need a few helicopters, a wet team, and oh yeah gimme 40M in unmarked gold”
JN Hall3Note that "gold bars" do come in many different sizes
Queen Gwenevere3“Brought home from work” Like the way some people bring home stray pens and pads of Post-It notes from work? Are these gold bars just sort of… laying around the place? Accidentally left on the water cooler? Scattered around the conference rooms?
Michel3It fluctuates depending on how many they've already sent to the right-wing opposition of leftist South American governments
brindleboar.bsky.social2"sure I helped him move some heavy duffel bags from work to his house, but I assumed they were just drugs"
TheFullerReport2Right? Weird one, specially right now
A former senior CIA official with top secret-level clearance is accused of stealing hundreds of gold bars worth more than $40 million from the federal government and stashing them in his home. n.pr/4dUfil3
John Sipher87I’m pissed. I was never given any gold bars.
Blue_Riverrrr30Remember when Trump said that he and Musk were going to “check” on the gold at Fort Knox?
*NPR: "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." It should read "he does not appear to have undergone".
shockeddaily.bsky.social20Can't he just like give half to Trump to make it go away? 🤷🏻♂️
Michelle Lacey20How did he not have his educational records and military experience verified as part of a security clearance investigation?
Antifa Hoagie Assassin13How the heck did he fake all of that, and have a TS clearance??? I remember the "fun" of getting a TSC. It took HOURS to fill out that damn thing. And then the phone calls from scared friend-of-friends, wondering who that government guy asking about me was. Do they not follow up anymore???
GrandstandFan12This is what happens when you don't kick up to Trump
Charlie Farquar 🇺🇲🇨🇦🇲🇽🐸12I'm old enough to remember when this would be shocking
anotherAKGorman ❌👑9How did the CIA not discover he was falsifying his resume?
Gratitude9You’d think people at that level were supposed to be the cream of the crop. Maybe hiding in the most obvious place really is the strategy? Still wild that someone with top-secret clearance thought he could get away with this. But with this regime in power, they all loot and steal when they can.
The Omnibro8The FBI says he received the foreign currency and foreign gold bars for “work related expenses.” But instead of using them for work (CIA stuff like bribes and murder) he kept them. How unethical! I wonder where the CIA got them to begin with and what they planned to do with them that he didn’t do.
KP.Hardeman7This is as much an indictment of the system as it is of him… it’s chaotic, mismanaged and everything is just ‘too big’… If only he’d stopped at one gold bar 🤣
Julie Sirrs5If he would’ve just put it in a Cava bag and gone to work for Trump, he’d be fine.
CarrieT 🗽 ⚖️ 🇺🇸 🐶 📚 🛩 🌏 🐘 🗳 ⛩️ 😆 🎶 🪙 🤷♀️5Unclear about its intended use. 🙄
Huh…5Trump has set the standard
Fondled J Hump4I think it's safe to say that this isn't the whole story, or the actual story.
dtf19474What’s the problem? That’s chump change compared to the amounts of money being looted by Dumpy and his kids every day.😏
MDC_LetsEndTheMadness4...wonder from whence came that bold, brash, in-your-face, thieving-from-the-american-people, self-dealing idea...
Greenstone📎3One little piggy built his home with twigs. Another with gold bars. Actually, he was a big piggy.
The Thin Man3No internal controls at all, I guess. But The Mad King is worried about the Somalian committing fraud.
Suezq80003Are you sure we aren’t taking about Trump?
Gipper’s Gravespin3It’s wrong to do that
UWOPS3When the CIA/IC/DoD was forced by the GOP to outsource background investigation to contractors, it lost quality control. The contractors faked reports of investigations never conducted. And now our government and military is riddled with spies and thieves to an unbelievable level.
Emmy1083There's a joke about Intelligence to be made in here somewhere.
noelmurphy.bsky.social3Rumoured he was moonlighting for a swank dentist.......
klfjoat.bsky.social2Why keep them all in his home? Seriously, you figure an intelligence operative would know better.
Kathryn Grace2Who planted them and why?
ANimzovich2I’m sure he’s the only one who did this.
Rafa lives to travel2Jesús. For God’s sake How low do we have to go?
Zeb2What does one do with hundreds of gold bars? Not exactly easy to transport or cash
gregpat87.bsky.social2More of the fraud JD is supposed to be looking for.
The chicken lady2That's horrible. And you know what is also really terrible ? That with this FBI director, you just can't be sure if this is all valid. Because sea shells are also an valid accusation. Yes, this has likely happened, and the guy probably sold who knows what to who knows whom, but any case, even
Ché 🇪🇺2Nothing compared to DJT's looting.
'From last November to March, the court papers say, Mr. Rush asked for, and received, “a significant quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses.”' You know, I should really ask for, and receive, more gold bars for work-related expenses
BornToBark3Trump will pardon the guy for a cut of the take, then tell Keystone Kash to fire the agents on the case.
Tracy Kneisler3Never saw "gold bars" as a travel reimbursement option during my time.
Mina2That’s four months. We’re supposed to believe the CIA gave an employee $10 million a month for expenses?
Perd Ferguson, Your Weird Little Minnesota Friend2Bob Menendez: hold my bullion.
😳🇺🇸 The FBI has arrested a former CIA employee: $40 million in gold bars were found during a search of his home, - CBS News. The former CIA employee, David Rush, has already been charged with embezzlement of government funds.
Savchenko Volodymyr35Investigators allege he embezzled gold bars, illegally received "inflated salaries and improperly obtained military leave," and provided false information about his past. Rush requested large sums of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold from the government for official expenses
Geoff3Test the gold bars for traces of spray tan & burgers. This has Trump's stench all over it.
Limited scripted series or three-part docuseries? Unless the gold bars were used to pay a hit man, Dateline is out of the question. On the other hand, it could turn out to be boring. “Saw money, wanted money.”
Alan Sepinwall7I assume @briancgrubb.bsky.social has thoughts on the right genre for this
🖤🩶💜Dreamer & the Cosmic Horror Show💚🤍🖤3I was hoping for at least an interesting "how did he smuggle THAT out?" story but bah: 'From last November to March, the court papers say, Mr. Rush asked for, and received, “a significant quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses.”'
A former CIA official has been accused of stealing 303 gold bars worth more than $40 million from the spy agency and stashing them in his Virginia residence, according to a criminal complaint and current and former U.S. officials.
Peter in Vancouver 🇨🇦🏳️🌈💉💪9Why does the agency even have $40million in gold bars in the first place
Ernest Belding6I have done this with binder clips, relatable.
patsbigsister.bsky.social2NO PROBLEM, Trump will pardon him and maybe let him keep the gold if he share.
Noakesington 🇨🇦2The CIA has gold bars why?
“A senior C.I.A. official was arrested last week after investigators found hundreds of gold bars worth over $40 million stashed in his Virginia residence, a small fortune that he apparently brought home from work… The official, David Rush, is being held in jail while he awaits a detention hearing”
Kathleen Bachynski16“On May 18, F.B.I. agents searched Mr. Rush’s home and found “approximately 303 gold bars, each of which weighed approximately one kilogram,” according to an affidavit. Based on the price of gold, the affidavit said, the estimated value of the gold exceeded $40 million.”
Elvis-it's a nickname5Damn. I brought a few pencils home from work once.
Jacob Englander2Well that is not at all suspicious! /s