David Rush, a former executive intelligence agent who served at the Central Intelligence Agency for 17 years, was arrested in May after FBI agents discovered he had taken 303 gold bullion bars, each about 2.2 pounds, along with dozens of luxury watches and more than $2 million in foreign currency from his government office, according to court documents reviewed by the Washington Post. The total value of the stolen gold bars exceeds $40 million, U.S. officials said.
According to the Washington Post, which first reported the new allegations, U.S. officials now say Rush also stole millions of dollars from the government by establishing an illegitimate “special access program” — a security protocol that further restricts access to classified information. The program was ostensibly related to “continuity of government operations,” including plans for how the U.S. government would function during a nuclear war or other disasters, the New York Times reported.
Rush reportedly “read in” two colleagues into the fabricated program, meaning he briefed them on its existence and prevented them from discussing it with others. He then convinced one of those individuals to transfer millions of dollars to the program through a fraudulent government contract, a source told the Washington Post. “He made up a contract,” the source said.
The criminal complaint, filed by FBI special agent Matthew Johnson, also alleges that Rush falsified his educational background and military service to obtain his CIA job and security clearances. Since being honorably discharged from the Navy Reserve in February 2015, Rush claimed 744 hours of military leave on his official timesheets — representing approximately $77,000 in compensation, Johnson wrote.
Rush has been charged with theft of public funds and is currently detained in Alexandria, Virginia. He also faces allegations that he padded his time cards based on the false claim that he remained a Navy reservist.
The scandal has caused embarrassment for the CIA and raised fresh questions about how the agency vets employees who are given access to highly sensitive information. The CIA has placed several employees on leave as the investigation continues, NBC News reported.
According to four unnamed sources cited by the Washington Post, Rush himself was involved in an actual top-secret intelligence-gathering program that very few CIA employees and lawmakers knew about. The Post withheld the name of that program and specific details after U.S. government officials cautioned that further disclosure would harm ongoing operations.
It remains unclear how Rush was able to create the bogus special access program without additional clearance from his supervisors or whether his colleagues who were read into the program knew it was illegitimate.