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FBI arrests CIA official with $40M in gold bars in his home
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- AmazingEveryDay 4mo agoThis seems absolutely crazy. Probably Fort Knox should be inventoried, might indeed not be anything there!
- yieldcrv 4mo agoThis is different than that and scant on pertinent details It says he received it as compensation for expenses, not that it was ever in some government vault. This is additional gold and foreign currency that an agency had, not the reserve. It then says > When the C.I.A. conducted a review of where the gold and currency were stashed Why would they do that if it was compensation for expenses He wasn't charged for that, and the phrasing doesn't suggest it was supposed to be remitted to the government if the CIA didn't have a history of being involved in shady shit like this that already explains everything, this would be weird instead it looks like he's got burned over his necessary use of fibbed identity
- root_axis 4mo agohttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-fort-knox-gold-steal-b2973930.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...
- Tangurena2 4mo agoFort Knox doesn't store gold bars that small. A 1kg gold bar is about the size of a cellphone. The ones at Fort Knox are the large trade bars, which weigh about 400 ounces (or 12.4 Kg). > Size of a standard gold bar: 7 inches x 3 and 5/8 inches x 1 and 3/4 inches. > Weight of a standard gold bar: approximately 400 ounces or 27.5 pounds. https://www.usmint.gov/about/tours-and-locations/fort-knox https://www.usmint.gov/about/tours-and-locations/fort-knox
- simpaticoder 4mo agoSo what is that, like 10 gold bars? EDIT: it's 240. but still, they were worth a lot less not that long ago...
- farrarstan 4mo ago[dead]
- mlmonkey 4mo agoAccording to the article, 303 gold bars worth about $40M.
- sleepyguy 4mo agoSounds like he was most likely involved in some serious shit that was off the books and somehow it came to light. His boss is probably aware of what it was but no one will admit shit. It went awry and he is left holding the bag. Gold and money for an operation that could have been to anything from funding armed rebellion to god only knows.
- asdff 4mo ago$40m+ in an expense account based in gold bars is absolutely crazy. CIA agents must have access to untold resources if this is seen as a somewhat regular 4 month spend. Seems it is, given that they seemingly weren't concerned about the $40+ million being taken out, but where it was being held.
- coliveira 4mo agoThe "resources" are off the books, it must be just the tip of the iceberg.
- asdff 4mo agoI'm imagining its like the Continental Hotel in John Wick. Everything you need to fund and arm an insurgency, checking it out from facilities like I might with an AV adapter.
- sneak 4mo ago$40M is a trivial amount of money to everyone involved in this matter. It’s only a few hundred 1kg bars.
- Tangurena2 4mo agoAnd the bars are the size of a cellphone.
- simulator5g 4mo agoYou're thinking in pre-covid peasant dollars. $40m isn't that much anymore, and frankly never was to these people.
- mlmonkey 4mo agoGold is the "bitcoin" of yesterday, in the sense that it is untraceable, anonymous and yet high value enough to be worth it. And it can be made to disappear in a hurry, if you have to: https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/10/03/140815154/dissolve-my-nobel-prize-fast-a-true-story https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/10/03/140815154/d...
- ozgrakkurt 4mo agoNone of those points match bitcoin. What you are describing is more like tornado cash or similar stuff which are really really banned when interfacing with banks or similar institutions.
- rafram 4mo ago> untraceable, anonymous and yet high value enough to be worth it Literally none of these is true of Bitcoin.
- akimbostrawman 4mo agoBtc is neither fungible, untraceable or private. The only actual currency which is comparable to gold is monero xmr.
- contingencies 4mo agoCIA: Corruption Institute of America
- paradoxyl 4mo agoIts nickname since the 1970s has been Criminals in Action, when they were smuggling heroin out of the Golden Triangle to fund covert actions during the Vietnam War.
- hnthrowaway0315 4mo agoMaybe this is part of the shadow money. CIA has been working with business people since the beginning of Cold War and I wouldn't be surprised that they have deep roots in the financial world -- after all both Intelligence and Finance need globalization.
- hmmokidk 4mo ago[flagged]
- hnthrowaway0315 4mo agoThe shadow world has its own rules and morals.
- JumpCrisscross 4mo agoIt’s almost certainly grift. If it were official, the arrest would have been scrubbed.
- electroglyph 4mo agosometimes i wonder if the left hand knows what the right is doing. it looks like we arrested our own spy in this case: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/25/american-journalist-unregistered-agent-china-00935518 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/25/american-journalist...
- JumpCrisscross 4mo agoThe CIA director requested the FBI intervene. This is almost certainly not a fuckup.
- mmooss 4mo agoThat's their post hoc, uncorroborated claim. It's easy to imagine many other possibilities; it could just be face saving. It could be Rush is taking the fall. etc.
- JSR_FDED 4mo ago[flagged]
- walrus01 4mo ago[flagged]
- delichon 4mo agoA couple of weeks ago there was a story that the CIA raided the office of the director of the NSA and seized information regarding the CIA. Trump was in China at the time. About a week later the NSA director resigns. I waited for it to turn into a major story and get some kind of explanation, but silence. It seems like an extraordinary story and I don't understand why there isn't a hullabaloo. Did I hallucinate it? Who runs this country?
- dabadabad00 4mo ago> Who runs this country? American Thought Control. Crazy crackpot schizos aren’t the only ones listening to the voices in their heads.
- NordStreamYacht 4mo agoThe DNI, not the NSA.
- greesil 4mo agoBecause nobody reputable reported on it?
- foobar1726 4mo agoReputable reporters know that publishing those stories leads to break-in burglaries where everyone is killed and nothing is stolen.
- greenavocado 4mo agoOr with hands tied and two gunshot wounds to the back of the head and its ruled a suicide (Gary Webb)
- Tangurena2 4mo agoOr crawled into a suitcase and zipped it up = suicide. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Gareth_Williams https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Gareth_Williams
- vostrocity 4mo agoHow porous is the CIA's interview process that they couldn't validate the guy's military discharge status?
- EA-3167 4mo agoWhen it comes to stories involving intelligence agencies I generally assume that I’m not getting the whole or accurate story.
- pstuart 4mo agoYeah, the CIA is all about CYA.
- sudoshred 4mo agoMuch like most office jobs
- pstuart 4mo agoLike most people, unfortunately. But most people aren't entrusted with so much power and duty, and done so ostensibly for service to the people of this country.
- rbanffy 4mo agoNot really, but all about manufacturing a story that fits whatever version the country needs pushed. It’s covering the country’s ass.
- IncreasePosts 4mo agoHow porous is the approving manager/chain that someone can request 300kg of gold bars and no one knows why and they just approve it any way.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- johnea 4mo ago> millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses. Hey, handing over millions of $$s to local warlords is a business expense...
- jojobas 4mo agoYes? Also children of Russian or Iranian generals or deputy ministers.
- JumpCrisscross 4mo agoHuh. I’m actually glad to see the IC fragmenting like this.
- chatmasta 4mo agoIs it fragmenting? The FBI has always been in charge of investigating other agencies. The article even notes that this particular investigation was initiated when the CIA director made a referral to the FBI.
- JumpCrisscross 4mo ago> article even notes that this particular investigation was initiated when the CIA director made a referral to the FBI Fair enough.
- NooneAtAll3 4mo agoThat's ~280kg of gold if anyone wonders
- xnx 4mo agoIt would make such a fantastic set of barbell plates.
- CSSer 4mo agoGold is pretty soft. You would have to cut it to 10 carat, so there’s be even more to go around!
- elif 4mo agoNah literally crushing plates would feel so good. Worth the effort to melt it again every few sessions
- thrownthatway 4mo ago[flagged]
- arionmiles 4mo agoDwarves of Moria get swole
- thrownthatway 4mo agoHaving to handle the plates with care and the damage they’d take regardless would add to the charm.
- scottshea 4mo agoThis whole thread renews my faith in humanity
- zippyman55 4mo ago
- Computer0 4mo agoI'm guessing they decided they don't like the guy anymore? The CIA is very corrupt as an institution and things like this run rampant. Billions of dollars go unaccounted for a year at the CIA.
- burnt-resistor 4mo agoDoD <--> defense contractors (military-industrial complex) is pretty close to the same. Never passed an audit and contractors were ripping off the DoD while creating scrap metal that was used by the Taliban. Trillions and trillions wasted.
- exabrial 4mo agoIf this were a Jason Bourne movie, it was the CIA that put the gold bars there.
- kingforaday 4mo agoI was just looking for something to watch tonight. Thanks for the recommendation!
- throw7 4mo agoEhh, more like Rush would've been found dead like Abbott after declaring "I'm a patriot" to internal CIA. What's tantalizing about Bourne is something about who we are and capable of, regardless of conditioning... both good and bad.
- mmooss 4mo agoThe CIA legitimately engages in bribery and hard asset payments. Note that the CIA approved his request and gave him these assets (or at least many of them - the paragraph below doesn't specify the amount). > From last November to March, the court papers say, Mr. Rush asked for, and received, “a significant quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses.” Possibly the question here is, why did Rush take them home. It's always possible Rush was just sloppy and undisciplined, which would also reflect a cultural problem. Many people have been found with secret documents in their homes.
- lazide 4mo agoIf he still has them, it’s probably ‘garden variety’ workplace embezzlement. Make up some sources, pretend to pay them, cash the payments. He probably just got sloppy, and it got too obvious.
- vintermann 4mo ago"Legitimately" is a nonsense word in that sentence.
- greenavocado 4mo agoSomeone's gotta pay for the mortgage at 7327 Georgetown Pike, McLean VA
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- skeledrew 4mo agoGuy sounds like a dragon. What's the deal with the watches though?
- NDlurker 4mo agoI imagine watches are more liquid than gold bars
- TZubiri 4mo agoalso they seem to be a virus that wealth-chasing people catch on to
- raverbashing 4mo agoGee I don't know, they look pretty solid to me, unless they're Dalí watches /s
- rubzah 4mo agoThey're very high value by weight, very fungible, and there is much less regulation about carrying them across international borders.
- 542354234235 4mo agoMoving a six-figure Audemars Piguet or Patek Philippe watch through an airport would be much easier than the equivalent in gold or cash, even at 50% value. A watch roll with four watches in it could be the same value as 4-5 lbs of gold. If you needed something that you could cash in anywhere on the planet fairly quickly, gold would be the best option. But if you wanted max value, minimal scrutiny and had time at the other end to set up legit buyer, extremely high-end watches would be a pretty optimal option.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- elektronika 4mo agoWatches are the commodity of choice for corruption in some circles. I know people in jewelry and a significant portion of their transactions are watches to Chinese businessmen, formerly through Hong Kong, now through Singapore. They're high value items with razor thin margins.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- rdtsc 4mo ago> From last November to March, the court papers say, Mr. Rush asked for, and received, “a significant quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses.” - "I need these bars to pay off this Russian spy who will tell us Putin's nuclear codes password" Comes back a week later - "His password is 12345" - "How do we know the story is not fake?" - "What am I going to get a signed receipt from him? Duh..."
- jojobas 4mo agoIt is an eternal problem with human intelligence. GRU and FSB spend serious resources on provoking their own agents, aimed at a range of problems including this one.
- stult 4mo agoWeirdly the CIA actually does require case officers to get signed receipts from their assets for payments. Whether they verify the signatures is another question...
- rdtsc 4mo agoHa! That's interesting. I think it would be funny to read some of those. "I, Mr. Ivanov, the Russian spy, got: 2 bars of gold, 5 buckets of caviar, 10 cases of vodka and 3 kilos of cocaine". Then they call the CIA headquarters complaining the cocaine is stale and they would rather have another 5 buckets of caviar instead.
- VladVladikoff 4mo agoArchive.ph/archive.today failing me to bypass paywall, is everyone commenting on the title? Or you all have NYT subscriptions? Or you know of some other bypass?
- tjohns 4mo agoMany community libraries offer free NYTimes access to their patrons.
- faitswulff 4mo agoI get 24 hour access through my local library. Here, have a gift link https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/27/us/politics/fbi-arrest-cia-official-gold-bars.html?unlocked_article_code=1.l1A.9kid.cWmf8kqF0KRT&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/27/us/politics/fbi-arrest-ci...
- ethagnawl 4mo agoI had no idea this was an option. Libraries are the best.
- VladVladikoff 4mo agoThank you!
- kwar13 4mo agooh man i just discovered that i have access to a lot of publications through my local library! thanks for this!
- mahirsaid 4mo agookay now the Director!
- siavosh 4mo ago“$40 million…a small fortune” — inflation has gotten out of hand!
- sudoshred 4mo agonearly retired
- gessha 4mo agoA couple more gigs and I can FIRE
- m463 4mo agoThat's only like 8 houses in mountain view.
- esseph 4mo agoOr one house in Beverly Hills.
- rbanffy 4mo agoNot even a decent jet.
- pixel_popping 4mo agoMy daughter is spending more than this on her birthdays.
- m4ck_ 4mo agoYou can definitely get a decent jet in that budget, there's a popular tech youtuber who recently bought one for considerably less. I'm pretty sure you could get like 6 houses in mountain view and still have money left over for a jet.
- brk 4mo ago
- yangm97 4mo agoShould’ve used Monero or something lmao
- passive 4mo agoSo we have this, and the Google employee polymarket trading: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48302822 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48302822 I'm totally not surprised, except that Trump's admin is actually catching and prosecuting these people. I assume that means this is just the tip of the iceberg, and the grift is so predominant that they can't help but catch some people.
- Radle 4mo agoFrom last November to March, the court papers say, Mr. Rush asked for, and received, “a significant quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses.” Obvious plant nobody would be that stupid to store the valuables at home within the first six months after the „acquisition“. —— Also the CIA was unable to confirm his discharge with the navy earlier? As if people aren’t properly vetted every time they switch jobs within the agency. (Especially considering his CIA career was on an upward trajectory) I have no clue what Mr. Rush actually did but it was neither of these two things which earned him ire. Maybe he’s a traitor and the gold + foreign money are bribes. If the CIA doesn’t want to explain what he‘s been bribed for the charges make a more sense.
- derefr 4mo ago> nobody would be that stupid to store the valuables at home within the first six months after the „acquisition“. But where else would you keep it? A safe-deposit box at a bank? I think, if I received illegitimate gold bars and figured the FBI might look into that, I would choose to keep them somewhere where a judge would think twice before issuing a search warrant for. Judges don't generally just issue search warrants for residences willy-nilly (because there can often be collateral damage); they're much more blasé about issuing search warrants for safe-deposit boxes. Or are you imagining he'd go bury the gold in a hole in the woods somewhere?
- unsupp0rted 4mo ago> Or are you imagining he'd go bury the gold in a hole in the woods somewhere? Why not?
- phendrenad2 4mo agoWhy not make multiple trips to carry extremely heavy metal, as a frail office worker, into the woods, which are full of hikers and hunters, on country roads in a suspicious-looking sedan, with a shovel in hand? And then do it all over again whenever you intend to retrieve these gold bars to do whatever it is you want to do with them? Why indeed.
- mhb 4mo agoThe In-Laws: Shel: "You robbed the U.S. Mint on your own? The CIA thought it was too crazy?" Vince: "Too risky."
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 4mo agoThere's a surprising number of CIA and secret agent experts in this comments section.
- tgarrett 4mo agoI've seen From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, and Thunderball I'll have you know.
- OccamsMirror 4mo agoBurn After Reading
- PowerElectronix 4mo agoThat's MI-6
- burnt-resistor 4mo agoI saw a John Kiriakou book on a shelf once.
- hacker_homie 4mo agoMysteriously only 39.12 million dollars is accounted for, The FBI is carefully monitoring the remaining 38.25 million dollars of gold, for a hearing later this week where the fate of the 36.5 million dollars of gold will be decided.
- Frieren 4mo agoYou can get the president of the United States to work for you for way less money than that.
- v4rp1ng 4mo agohttps://archive.is/9Qb1K https://archive.is/9Qb1K
- abrookewood 4mo agoThis could easily be an episode from Snowfall (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6439752/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6439752/), the rather excellent TV show about the early days of the crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles during the beginning of the 1980s. The CIA feature prominently and regularly acquire large amounts of cash & narcotics in order to run their operations.
- p0w3n3d 4mo agoThere's this one guy who's apparently also insider and he and his family earns a lot of money because of market manipulation with his decisions. Maybe FBI should get into him as well?
- bilekas 4mo agoI can't read the full article, but the subtitle says : > The only charge lodged against David Rush is that he inflated his academic credentials and obtained military leave pay worth tens of thousands of dollars. Is this guys just very good at saving gold for CIA/personal reasons and it's still his or is this gold in related to some crime ?
- mikeyouse 4mo agoAlmost assuredly they charged him on the crime easiest enough to get a search warrant and arrest warrant and this original indictment will be superseded with one covering the full gambit of his crimes.
- quijoteuniv 4mo agoReally? Gold? Mr.Rush? … unbelievable what a surname can inflict on you
- rolandog 4mo agoIn a weird reversal to Conway's law, the organizational structure of the US government has started to resemble the software it uses [0]. [0]: https://www.globalnerdy.com/2011/07/03/org-charts-of-the-big-tech-companies-plus-an-enhancement/ https://www.globalnerdy.com/2011/07/03/org-charts-of-the-big...
- noobermin 4mo agoHe just needs to profess his love for our country (the president, you know how Trump says attacks on him are attacks on the whole country) and may be say he has dirt on the deep state or hasan piker or something. Trump will be inviting him to the white house where he can steal from the government and tax payers in a more sanctioned way.
- pyuser583 4mo agoI read a book by a CIA officer. A big part the job is carrying around tons of cash for shady people. It’s understood that if you take the cash for yourself, you go to prison. The ironic thing is the money usually goes missing. It gets given to some VIPs brother, who is supposed to give it to VIP, but doesn’t. The important thing is it not go missing while you are watching it. It can go missing later - just not on your watch.
- wombat-man 4mo agointerested in knowing what book, if it was good.
- ASalazarMX 4mo agoThe guy this post is about is likely in the same situation, trafficking valuables and money as part of his job, officially or not. Who gave him orders?
- dzonga 4mo agothis being the C.I.A - this guy is being railroaded or is being made a fall guy. he will serve a short jail term but at least he will live. remember folks - C.I.A is the only gvt org that self funds itself & can run entirely without gvt money.
- thephyber 4mo ago> is the only gvt org that self funds itself & can run entirely without gvt money Citation needed. The CIA receives lots of opaque funding from the US government (at least opaque to citizens trying to FOIA), but just because it’s not easily accounted for doesn’t mean the org funds itself.
- dzonga 4mo agothat's the point. you can't prove it. I can't prove it. however - with a little common sense you can link everything together. CIA has mandate to operate abroad. they can own mines, journalism houses, drug operations - abroad & in the U.S. technically the CIA is not allowed by law to operate in the US (but bcoz they're too powerful - they now have a free pass in that area) remember they can also self-classify material. which means what they own will always remain opaque till they choose to declassify it usually after 70 or so years. >> now back to the gold. remember they're restrictions around gold citizens can hold etc. & suddenly a private citizen has massive gold bars ? how so ? unless they were holding the gold for a powerful entity (but discovered by some gvt agency & now they need a fall guy) ?
- gosub100 4mo agoI think it's somehow related to the recent whistle blower and or the congressman who sent an open letter to the head of CIA saying "I'm not sure if you're getting my requests through private channels so please call me when you get this". There's something terrible going on in the agency (terrible even by their standards who drown people and revive them) and I think this might be an attempt to bring it to light.
- fuck_google 4mo ago[dead]
- allenrb 4mo agoI’ve walked off with a few of my employer’s pens over the years. Is this really so different?
- rafael-lua 4mo agoBy the title only, having gold bars is bad? There it goes my plans of buying some.
- VikRubenfeld 4mo agoThe article says "A senior C.I.A. official was arrested last week after investigators found hundreds of gold bars worth over $40 million stashed in his Virginia residence, a small fortune that he apparently brought home from work, according to court papers." The same article also says: "When the C.I.A. conducted a review of where the gold and currency were stashed, the agency was “unable to locate the gold bars or significant amounts of the foreign currency,” according to court papers." The NY Times fact checkers don't seem to have seen this article.
- theseidel 4mo agoDid Scott Rudin already option it? "Gold Rush"
- pseingatl 4mo agoYou don't take possession of 600 pounds of gold without a plan. Putting it in a hole isn't putting it to work. Sell it to a country where jewelry is manufactured, that at least gets it into the banking system. Lebanon loves gold. So does India. If this guy is under investigation, everything linked to him will be discovered. He can't really spend it. Aldrich Ames bought a Jaguar and was caught.
- rimworld 4mo agoGold Rush, yet another very unlikely story
- 0xbadcafebee 4mo agoThe gold bars and foreign cash thing seems normal. They have to pay off warlords, drug dealers, foreign dignitaries, informants, assets. You can't be filling out requisition forms, going through multiple banks in foreign nations, carrying gold bars and cash in and out of banks, etc to pay off a secret government informant. Somebody will see the money trail, tip off the bad guys, and your op is over (and the informant is dead) But of course it's also bad because not only can the money easily be stolen, there's basically no transparency into how intelligence agencies use taxpayer money. I have no idea how much corruption is in intelligence and military, but it's probably a lot, considering just how easy it is to steal or misappropriate these funds
- aussiegreenie 4mo agoHow quickly can we get the movie?