A former high-ranking official with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who is alleged to have fibbed about his credentials in order to secure $77,000 in bogus military leave was recently busted by the FBI after agents discovered a massive fortune that included $40 million worth of gold bars tucked away inside his home in Virginia.
Federal agents conducted a raid at the residence of David Rush, where they found a mind-blowing 303 gold bars, along with $2 million in cash, and three dozen luxury Rolex watches, according to information contained in court documents. Rush, who served as a “senior executive service-level employee at the CIA, reportedly requested the massive haul of gold and foreign currency to cover “work-related” expenses between November 2025 and March 2026.
After conducting a routine audit, the CIA found the assets were missing from official custody, which then prompted the agency’s director to refer the matter to federal investigators. “After a CIA internal investigation identified potential violations of the law, CIA Director John Ratcliffe referred the information to the FBI for a law enforcement investigation,” the FBI went on to say in a statement.
According to a report from the New York Post, the statement then said, “The FBI is working closely with our partners at the CIA and the Department of Justice as we continue to investigate this matter fully.” Before the raid on Rush’s home, federal officials looked into a storage space located in Rush’s office that he used to store work-related funds.
“But only a portion of the currency he received remained in the storage space,” the court affidavit revealed. As of this writing, Rush is only being charged with inflating his college resume and creating a scheme to fleece the government out of military leave pay after he allegedly falsely claimed to be a member of the Navy Reserve.
The affidavit also said that Rush employed the use of his twisted sense of imagination to make up most of the background he used to secure a senior executive service role in the federal government. Rush did enlist in the Navy back in 1997, but was honorably discharged in 2015. After his service in the Navy, he did not serve in any other branch of the military.
After he was discharged, Rush allegedly faked active status as a captain in order to get $77,000 in unearned military leave, while also drawing his executive salary. And that’s not all. Rush also claimed he earned a mathematics degree from Clemson University and an electrical engineering master’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Registrars found no records to prove his credentials.
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He also claimed to have received certifications from the U.S. Air Force and Naval Test Pilot schools, but FAA and military records show that he didn’t have a pilot’s license. Instead, he served as an IT technician, along with several other roles. The fraudster is currently being held in federal custody while he awaits trial for his crimes.
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