GOLDFINGERS

The Crazy Story of the CIA Officer with $40 Million in Gold Bars at Home

I rarely write two stories in a week, much less twice in two days, but this one is too rich.

Hot take, please excuse any typos.

Full disclosure - obviously, I have no inside baseball on this story, but I did work as the case agent on an FBI undercover operation that went on for several years many moons ago, so I know a little about covert funding. But nothing on this level!

I DM’d a well-know fiction editor in NY yesterday and asked if I sent this to him as proposed thriller, would he buy it. A - No.

The following is from recent open source reporting:

David Rush, late forties in age, was arrested yesterday after the FBI searched his Fairfax County house on May 18th and recovered 303 gold bars worth approximately $40 Million as well as at least $1.2 Million in cash, and 35 Rolex watches. Rush was described as a Senior Intelligence Officer (SIO) at CIA where he was employed since 2009.

Just to add to the drama, (as if that is not enough,) he allegedly applied to CIA twice in the early 2000 and was not hired, until he applied a third time in 2009. At the time he was a Naval officer where he served from 1997 and retired (from the reserves) in 2015. Allegedly, we have learned that in his applications to CIA he lied about his college credentials, as well as being a Navy test pilot, or even having an FAA pilot’s certificate of any kind.

We don’t know what his position at CIA was, other than “management,” which could be anything. I’ve seen that he applied to the Senior Executive Service as a SIO in 2018, which in my option is a little light in terms of service experience (nine years after being hired,) depending on what job function he held. Allegedly he repeated or claimed additional false information on his SES application.

We’re also told he “checked out” the gold bars and cash, but we don’t know what for or why. Interestingly, so far he’s only been charged with falsifying his military time slips, and inflating his academic credentials. Not stealing the gold, cash, or watches. These are felonies, but if he’s a first time offender, he could literally walk away with probation. (Assuming additional charges are not forthcoming, which may very well be the case.)

So let’s speculate here. First about how he slipped through the background and polygraph phases the application process. To get hired by the CIA, one goes through a full-scope background process. Everything you put on your application is supposed to be verified in-person by an investigator. Colleges, residents, neighbors, references, previous employers, etc. are all supposed to be checked by an background investigator.

Then there is the polygraph. I’ve taken six polygraphs in various jobs I had or applied to. I have my thoughts on polygraph and do not believe they are 100% accurate. I think they are generally as good as the operator who knows how to interview you before and after the test, which doesn’t not actually measure “lies,” just stress - allegedly. This is fodder for another article. But Rush apparently got through at least one, maybe more polygraphs, since a security clearance is usually updated every five years.

If somebody squirreling away looted gold, cash, and watches slipped through the process, who else is a problem at CIA?

Speaking of, what’s the deal with the booty? Here’s my speculation on that:

I have no idea if Rush was a traditional operations officer (recruiting and running assets overseas,) or if he was a management or logistics guy, or anything else at CIA. But being able to sign out that kind of property means he probably had something to to with covert operations. The gold, cash, and watches were for operational purpose. Probably paying off corrupt politicians and generals in third world countries. Fair enough, that’s the way things work in the nasty world of intelligence.

But it’s weird how he was not charged with theft. Which means one or two things to me. He really didn’t intend to convert it to personal property, he was just keeping it at home instead of a secure facility he was supposed to keep it. Maybe he was keeping the rent he was supposed to be paying some super secret facility somewhere. This is not a likely scenario, but if the government can’t prove he intended to keep it, they might not charge him with the theft.

More likely is when he signed out the gold, cash, and watches, they were for specific operations. The kinds of things that leave a paper trail. And that if he were charged with a roughly $50 Million dollar theft he might fight in court and make the government show the records. And maybe the government doesn’t want to show those kinds of records that might disclose who was getting the booty because it would embarrass the government and/or who it was destined for.

Here’s my big takeaway. Anytime a high profile crime happens at a place like CIA or FBI, lots of people saw it coming. Guys like David Rush don’t wake up one day and decide to start swiping gold, cash, and watches. There are usually red flags, and that’s what the background process, and updated security investigations are designed to catch.

In the wake of FBI Agent Robert Hanssen’s arrest in 2001, the FBI brought in a senior CIA officer to stand up a Security Division, (because they were supposedly better at this in the wake of their own Aldrich Ames spy scandal a few years earlier,) instituted annual financial disclosure forms, and started polygraphing new applicants and on-board agents. Which was rich because in the wake of Ames, the FBI sent a senior FBI Agent to run counterintelligence at CIA.

I don’t know where it goes from here, but this is a hell of a story.

I’ll skip the What I’m Working On feature and just say check out everything at www.fxregan.com.