A senior CIA official is at the centre of a case that investigators say involved the theft of nearly $40 million worth of gold bars – a scandal that former intelligence officials fear could expose some of the agency’s most closely guarded operations.
David Rush, a senior supervisor in the CIA’s science and technology division, was arrested in May on charges of theft of public money, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. According to authorities, Rush oversaw a highly classified intelligence program that used large amounts of cash to gather critical information about foreign adversaries. People familiar with the matter said the program had been approved by Congress and was considered an important national security effort.
While the criminal case is focused on the alleged theft, former CIA officials worry that court proceedings could reveal details about legitimate secret operations that were never meant to become public.
“You could start to see things exposed that shouldn’t be discussed, things that are real and truly sensitive,” said Mark Fowler, a former senior CIA officer who ran spying operations against Iran, as quoted by WSJ.
The investigation reportedly began after the CIA referred allegations that Rush had submitted false time cards. Authorities said he claimed military reserve pay despite having left the Navy years earlier.
As investigators dug deeper, they allegedly uncovered something much bigger. According to people familiar with the case, Rush appears to have created a fake classified program and presented it as a joint project with the Pentagon. The supposed operation was linked to continuity-of-government planning, which covers emergency measures designed to keep the US government functioning during a national crisis.
Investigators believe Rush convinced colleagues that the project required tens of millions of dollars in funding. The money was allegedly used to obtain hundreds of gold bars through a contractor.
The secrecy surrounding special access programs may have helped the scheme go unnoticed. Because only a small number of people were cleared to know about the project, normal oversight was limited.
When the FBI searched Rush’s Virginia home in May, agents reportedly found more than 600 pounds of gold bars, over $2 million in cash and dozens of luxury watches.
The situation has drawn comparisons to a famous 1970s incident involving a burglary connected to businessman Howard Hughes. That break-in eventually helped reveal a secret CIA mission to recover a sunken Soviet submarine and led to the agency’s famous response that it could “neither confirm nor deny” the existence of certain operations.
Now, some intelligence veterans fear the Rush case could once again bring sensitive CIA activities into the spotlight.
