A former CIA officer who was arrested after authorities discovered tons of of gold bars stashed in his home has admitted to defrauding the US authorities in a sprawling $200m (£151m) rip-off involving faux contracts and real estate.
David Rush, 49, is required to pay restitution to the authorities and forfeit luxurious real estate, automobiles, watches and other belongings tied to his crime as half of the plea deal.
Rush also confessed to offering secrets and techniques to a international authorities, which could have triggered “grave damage” to national security.
“The defendant will plead guilty because the defendant is in fact guilty of the charged offense,” prosecutors acknowledged in a court submitting outlining the plea deal.
The BBC has contacted Rush’s lawyer, who declined to remark.
Rush was initially charged with theft of public funds, but has now pleaded guilty to wire fraud. At the time of his arrest, a raid on his home uncovered 298 gold bars that he had obtained for “work-related expenses”.
Court filings around the deal deliver new particulars to gentle, including that Rush revealed the existence and description of a “clandestine human source” to a international official.
“The disclosure of such information could endanger the safety and life of the human source and the US government officers working with the source and jeopardize the US government’s ability to recruit human sources, who rely on the US government’s assurances of absolute secrecy,” prosecutors said in the submitting.
In a information release, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Rush “abused his position and betrayed the public trust and should be held fully accountable for his actions”.
FBI investigators said that between November 2025 to March 2026 Rush made repeated requests for “a significant quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses”.
“Rush fabricated a highly classified program to justify the acquisition of luxury real estate in South Florida, which he then intended to resell for personal profit,” the court submitting laying out the deal states.
Rush “effectively acted as his own approving official, enabling him to expend substantial amounts of United States government money without meaningful scrutiny”, according to the submitting.
He then used “fraudulently obtained” public funds to purchase luxurious real estate properties in southern Florida. According to the court submitting, half of the rip-off included hiring an inside designer and buying $40,000 value of kitchen home equipment for one property.
The wire switch charge was associated to a $45m switch that he initiated in January 2026. The plea deal also says that he offered high secret information to “a foreign government official who was not authorised to receive it and had no need to know it”.
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