Ex-CIA official held after agents find $40 million in gold bars at home

A former CIA official was arrested last week after FBI agents found roughly $40 million worth of gold bars at his home while investigating whether he lied about his education and military record.

David Rush remains in jail while his lawyers and federal prosecutors gather more information to help the court decide whether he should stay detained. Both sides asked the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to delay his detention hearing until June 5.

The FBI and CIA said in a joint statement that Rush was arrested after an internal CIA review found possible violations of law. Both agencies said their investigation is continuing.

Rush's lawyer, Jessica Carmichael, declined to comment.

He is charged with one count of stealing public money. The criminal complaint accuses him of taking the gold bars, obtaining an inflated salary, fraudulently claiming military leave and making false statements about his background. It does not detail the exact conduct behind each charge.

Between November 2025 and March of this year, Rush asked the government for large amounts of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work expenses, the complaint says. His employer, identified by sources as the CIA, could not later locate the gold or determine its intended use.

On May 18, agents searched his home and recovered 303 gold bars valued at more than $40 million, $2 million in cash and 35 luxury watches.

The complaint also accuses Rush of lying to the Navy when he enlisted in 1997. He submitted false transcripts showing he had earned a degree from Clemson University, which led to his commission as an ensign in the Navy Reserves in 2004. He was honorably discharged in 2015.

Rush later applied for federal jobs three times and listed degrees from Clemson, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Naval Postgraduate School. He repeated those claims on his security-clearance forms.

In 2018 he applied for a senior executive position and said he had graduated from the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and was director of test for a 145-person, 18-aircraft Army-Navy weapons unit. The FBI said none of those claims were true.

The complaint states that Rush also told the government he remained in the Navy Reserves after his discharge, allowing him to collect tens of thousands of dollars in military-leave pay.