Former CIA official arrested after $40M gold seizure

A former senior U.S. intelligence official has been arrested and charged with criminal theft of public money after federal agents discovered approximately 300 gold bars, $2 million in cash, and dozens of luxury watches in his Virginia home. David J. Rush was taken into custody on May 19 following an FBI raid the previous day.

According to a criminal complaint and FBI affidavit, the gold bars seized are each one kilogram and have an estimated total value exceeding $40 million. The search also yielded 35 luxury watches, many identified as Rolex models. The arrest followed a referral from the Central Intelligence Agency after an internal investigation identified potential legal violations.

Court documents allege that between November 2025 and March 2026, Rush made multiple requests to his government agency for a significant quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars, claiming the funds were for work-related expenses. When the agency later attempted to account for the assets, it could not locate the gold bars or significant amounts of the currency. Investigators found only a portion of the requested funds in a storage space near Rush's office.