Ex-CIA official found with gold bars admits to sprawling scheme, agrees to forfeit $194 million
Washington — A former CIA official who was found with $40 million in gold bars in his home in May pleaded guilty on Tuesday, admitting he invented fake classified programs to divert nearly $200 million in government money that he used to buy Florida mansions and gold.
David Rush entered a guilty plea on a single count of wire fraud during a hearing in federal court in Virginia.
As part of his plea agreement, Rush agreed to forfeit at least $194 million, including 298 gold bars, two BMWs, 35 luxury watches and four luxury homes in Florida. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
In a filing known as a criminal information detailing the allegations Rush admitted to, prosecutors said he invented a fake classified program to steer $145 million in government funds through a front company, using the money to purchase the homes in Florida that he intended to resell for profit. Separately, he "fabricated a separate purported sensitive government activity to justify the acquisition of gold bars," prosecutors said.
"Although the real estate and gold acquisitions involved different transactions and intermediaries, they were executions of the same overarching scheme — RUSH created false classified authorities, directed and approved the associated expenditures, caused contractors and subcontractors to carry out the transactions, and thereafter exercised possession or control over the acquired assets," the filing said.
Prosecutors said Rush had access to "highly sensitive and classified government programs," although the filing does not name the CIA as his former employer. The spy agency and FBI said previously that the investigation began when the CIA referred the matter to the bureau. In the affidavit supporting the original criminal complaint against him, he was described as a "former Senior Executive Service level employee" at a government agency in eastern Virginia.
The document said Rush caused an unidentified contractor known as Company 1 to transfer about $145 million to a holding company set up at his direction. He then instructed employees at that company and a subcontractor to route that money to a holding company that he controlled, and used the funds to purchase four properties in Palm Beach and Hobe Sound, Florida.
Rush was arrested in May. FBI agents found the gold bars, $2 million in cash and luxury watches when executing a search warrant at his home. Prosecutors said Tuesday that the holding company had about $38.6 million left in its account.
The gold bars were purchased after Rush told the unnamed contractors "that he was working on a Top-Secret project in which he had to deliver high-value commodities to unnamed individuals," the information said. One of the contractors wired $45 million to the holding company in January, a transaction that forms the basis of the wire fraud charge.
Rush was originally charged with one count of stealing public money, with investigators saying he had provided false information about his education and military service on his government application, and fraudulently took military leave after his service ended.
In June, a federal judge ordered Rush to remain in custody as the case proceeded, determining that he posed a severe flight risk.
At his detention hearing, government lawyers called Rush a "master manipulator" who lied to his neighbors about being a pilot, lied to his co-workers and leveraged his "access to seniority." A Justice Department lawyer said Rush "cannot be trusted" and is "fully willing and able to skirt the rules."
