An interesting arrest that might warrant some background material prior to today’s events. Keep in mind there are several indicted individuals from Venezuela and Mexico now said to be cooperating with the DOJ and federal law enforcement.
In addition to former Venezuela dictator Nicolas Maduro in the Southern District of New York, we should also note three Mexican officials connected to the Sinaloa cartel previously turned themselves in to U.S. federal officials and are said to be cooperating.
Earlier this month, Gerardo Mérida, a retired Mexican army general who served as public-security secretary in northwestern Sinaloa state surrendered in Tucson, Arizona. Enrique Inzunza Cazárez, who is also facing drug trafficking and weapon charges, was taken into custody in San Diego by the DEA. Sinaloa businessman Enrique Diaz Vega – another name from the SDNY indictment – also turned himself into U.S. authorities in Arizona.
As you read this story, also keep in mind the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, falls under the authority of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and that agency oversees a background check program, known as “continuous vetting.”
According to NBC News a 20-year veteran manger within the CIA named David Rush has been arrested on suspicion of embezzlement and theft. The CIA operative was reported to have been referred to the FBI by CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
(VIA NBC) WASHINGTON — A former CIA senior officer with top secret-level clearance has been accused of secretly stashing millions of dollars in gold bars in his home that he said he needed for “work-related expenses,” according to court documents and two people familiar with his employment history.
David Rush, who held a management position, was charged with criminal theft of public money in a complaint filed last week in the Eastern District of Virginia. His lawyer didn’t respond to a request for comment. He was also accused of lying to his employers about his background for nearly two decades.
Asked about Rush’s case, a CIA spokesperson said in a statement joint statement with the FBI that the FBI had arrested a person after a referral from the agency.
“After a CIA internal investigation identified potential violations of the law, CIA Director John Ratcliffe referred the information to the FBI for a law enforcement investigation,” the written statement said. “The FBI is working closely with our partners at the CIA and the Department of Justice as we continue to investigate this matter fully. We are committed to following the facts, ensuring accountability, and pursuing justice in accordance with the law.”
[…] It wasn’t clear how the investigation into Rush began, and it also wasn’t clear when he left the CIA. His home was raided just last week.
From November through March, Rush made several requests for funds, including for foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars, according to an affidavit filed in federal court by an FBI agent investigating the case.
In a storage space near his office, investigators found only a portion of the funds. On May 18, federal agents searched Rush’s home and seized roughly 300 gold bars worth more than $40 million, court documents said. Agents also seized about $2 million in U.S. currency and 35 luxury watches, mostly Rolexes, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit alleges Rush knowingly took part of the money he requested for work-related expenses to his home for personal gain.
The court filing didn’t specify which agency employed Rush, but the two people familiar with his employment history said he was with the CIA. (link)
Separate allegations in the complaint accuse Rush of falsifying his background over nearly two decades in dealings with government employers.
Is he Somalian?
/sarc, just a tad
I would like to see a photo also
“Continuous Vetting”. And why have they not been doing that? They have to install an Elon Chip in those people’s heads, when their hired and for as long as they are employed by the CIA, no exceptions. We will unplug you when you leave.
Better take a look at all those early retirements. Do they have extraordinary houses cars boats or anything that is associated to extreme wealth. Ghetto folklore is the CIA is the head drug lords!
El Chapo in his own words said Governments on both sides of the border control the drug trade and it’s all cash.
Maybe someone in government (SS) can reveal the serial numbers on the cash and reveal if it came straight from the Fed or was issued to the public which would be telling.
90% of US cash in circulation tests positive for cocaine traces. 63% for fentanyl.
And cash coming ‘straight from the Fed’ is certainly no indication of legal sanctity.
This is the issue that makes me wonder if we will ever go with a fully digital, traceable currency. If a country has a digital currency, them all financial crimes will stop, or the government will become a willing partner in the crime.
The government is already a willing partner in crime.
Continuous vetting is something our government does to its employees instead of a background search now.
It rankles me as an infringement on the 4th Amendment.
Surveilllance state tool that isn’t terribly effective that i can tell except to be used to criminalize someone after becoming a target.
To say we need continuous vetting to catch these kinds of bad guys is not good reasoning. CIA is corrupt and involved in gritty corruption, I suspect people involved also knew this guy wasn’t on the up and up, but the nature of government is to be uninterested inefficient and unresponsive to the economics of business until someone comes digging and asking questions.
Gee, why not get honorable, moral, faith-filled people in the first place? They know their final resting place is in The Father’s House, if they behave!
AMEN!!!
Not saying (we) need continuous vetting. Just employees of the CIA, uneek positions they have there.
We all will be under constant or continuous surveillance coming soon to the skies near you. Was once upon a time you could see 1 or 2 satellites a month or none in the night sky, look up now 10 to 20 satellites in 30 to 45 min. time frame. I read there are 15000 up there now in the near future, before 2030, 1.23 million. We will not be able look up and not see them, those little brite dots moving across the sky and what are they going to be doing everything. Its AI in space that all seeing eye.
You can thank Elon Musk. Lets not get into that Jesus Chip he wants in everyone’s brain!
Government politicians and bureaucrats have it so tough they often spend 40 to 50 years “serving”. I would guess many have taken one or more of the “opportunities” offered them. Continuous Vetting has become necessary as a result of rapidly diminishing ethics, morals and spirituality in the American cultures.
Yeah, I’ve heard that folklore too.
I knew a small engineering company when CFO retired they did an audit found $5mil missing. Found out he had 3 houses including one in Aspen. Why isn’t HR tasked with searching public records?
Strategic Air Command had the Personnel Reliability Program, in exactly this context, cuz’ nukes. Not an Orwellian Big Bro thing, so much as a codified buddy-check. Seems like it worked. I do recall one or two players suddenly disappearing from the roster. The current PC-DEI crowd would lose their minds (and their jobs) if it was conducted that way today.
David Rush paid me every two weeks in gold, I was an expense. My job? None of your business!
All I wonder is how many more just like him.
Hundreds.
At least!
Criminal International Association
And what does his wife or SO have squirreled away off shore?
Sounds like Rush was funding “black ops”. Rolex’s possibly given as “gifts” to participating bad guys? One thing seems obvious: He had help – and powerful connections – inside and outside D.C. I sincerely doubt he had all that money, gold and watches for just his personal gain. He was most likely funding insurrectionists/terrorists inside and outside the U.S. fighting against President Trump’s agenda. Hopefully, since his goose is cooked, he’ll start squawking about his “contacts”.
I heard somewhere that all CIA people in foreign countries carry Rolex watches because they are liquid assets. If you need cash to get out of the country, you can sell your watch.
Or gift it to a higher up who will take care of things!
Conversation in an undisclosed location:
Covert CIA Operative: “For your cooperation, I will give you this Rolex watch”
Prospective Informant: “So, you’re CIA, eh? Iran is paying in Patek Phillipes”
Will Mr. Rush live to see our 250th on July 4th?
He better be in isolation cell somewhere unknown if he expects to survive being “cooperative” to questioning about others involved.
Something needs to wipe that smirk off his face. Time for a water board washing…
Is anyone shocked?
Not me.
NYPost:
While Rush enlisted in the Navy in 1997, he was honorably discharged in 2015 and after he never enlisted in any other branch of US military, the court documents state. After his Navy discharge, Rush allegedly falsified active Captain status to pocket $77,000 in unearned military leave while drawing an inflated executive salary.
He also claimed he received a mathematics degree from Clemson University and an electrical engineering master’s from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, but registrars found no record of him.
Rush additionally alleged to have certifications from the U.S. Air Force and Naval Test Pilot Schools; however, FAA and military files reveal he lacked a pilot’s license, serving instead as an IT technician, among other roles.
Now THAT is a very impressive vitae! He could be the next governor of Minnesota. You have to admire the creativity. Either GO BIG OR GO HOME!
On the other hand, how in Heaven’s name could security screeners at multiple levels in multiple agencies miss this?….
Exactly. you would think the military service could quickly verified.
Makes you wonder whom he put down for references….
Daniel Goldman, William Barr, and Al Green.
🙂
YEP!
Should bank accounts be looked at NOW????
John Brennan, like minded.
A groomed spy for whom, by whom…
They didn’t miss it. They ignored it intentionally.
This^^^
They hire those that they have baggage.
They’re easier to control and since their character is dishonest to begin with, that’s exactly what the CIA wants.
I have come to assume that anyone the Democrat party runs for office or promotes within government is compromised morally or legally. If you are going to put someone in a key position and promote them up the chain, they need to be dependable when you need them. “Indepenence” is a flaw in your business model.
And disposable…
They didn’t ignore it for free.
Black Ops Treasurer and Distribution Director of secondary retirement accounts.
Hard to believe, isn’t it?
Especially, when the screeners worked for the CIA, FBI, and Military!
it’s almost as though people like good ‘ol Rush were working for the big dogs who were getting an even bigger cut of the taxpayers money, isn’t it?
So, of course, the “screeners” WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO SEE ANYTHING SUSPICIOUS!
Every single politician, bureaucrat, and anyone else working for the government needs to be DODGED all the way from the current time back to their high school graduation! And that goes for friends and relatives, as well!
Dodged????
Must have meant DOGED.. like what Elon and crew were looking into.
DOGE.. like what Elon was doing >> Department of Government Efficiency
When my son was moving into MOS 62Bravo I was.visited by investigators as were his friends. But then we lived west of Mississippi and red state
What makes you think that security screeners are there to actually screen people?
Perhaps they are there to make us THINK that they are screening people.
How many screeners have Rolex watches?
They are actually screening people. This is the type pf people they are hiring.
There is nothing that a few gold bars cannot accomplish, and throw in a Rolex or two for good measure.
Yah, how many gold bars were there to begin with? Makes one wonder…! What kind of deal could he get from the Dems for those gold bars to pay for election fraudsters this November? This could be more dastardly than any of us may understand.
Most likely they didn’t.
The real question is, “Who and what is being protected?” that the CIA is using him as a sacrificial lamb to divert attention.
‘The real question is, “Who and what is being protected?” that the CIA is using him as a sacrificial lamb to divert attention.’
And CTH joins the other media as diversion organ.
Not just Mr. Rush, but all the many diversions flooding us courtesy of media made in the image of Mockingbird. A Smörgåsbord of pointless.
But thank God for all this. We are the cat chasing the laser pointer on the floor, as the nation is nearing the final stages of managed decline.
Lest anyone think “yawn, another doomsayer, Trump is leading us to greatness again”, here’s another glimpse of a tip of the iceberg of the managing:
https://jonathanturley.org/2026/05/27/doing-the-math-uc-faculty-call-for-the-return-to-standardized-testing-after-shocking-decline-in-skills/
China and Russia have not done this to their education systems. Suicidal empathy exploited by veiled “nudging” for decades in all things (not just education), the damage is profound and irreversible, the sinking proceeds apace.
Iran? So many goals, none officially stated. One apparent goal:
https://www.defensenews.com/news/pentagon-congress/2026/05/27/us-munitions-depleted-by-iran-war-will-take-years-to-restore-analysis-finds/
“Years to restore”, except they are not done expending them.
The larger impact may be revealing the true shrinking limits of US power to the world with the embarrassing bluster covering impotence. “Making war without industry is an oxymoron.”
As you talk about and highlight diversions via media, you post more diversions.
FFS, you people are transparent as all get out.
Yeah, let’s not try to right the course, let’s keep on keeping on so I can continue to post about decline and declare …”see, see, you doomer yawners, I was right!” As you walk into the rake.
He’s a 20 year veteran so many people have looked the other way for a long time. Interesting question who gave him up and why now?
Tulsi has done more to expose the MESS than all other heads combined before her. Great American!!!
Tulsi was and is a great patriot! I fear we finding out much later, she is the best to ever hold that job.
Wag another dog.
No doubt there are millions $ and millions $ of reasons.
Are there any competent people who are honest in federal government standard employment?
Certified Intelligence Adjusted.
Screeners no longer screen. They rubber stamp because it’s less work. Lots of out sourcing and DEI hiring going on, plus there are way to many clearances dished out.
Truly, what a little lie between agencies? Who does the vetting? Just wondering- go bold or go home
I thought spies were supposed to have good cover stories?
He should be able to find work as a consultant to Somali entrepreneurs.
A spy perhaps?
Intelligence is a dirty business that runs on blackmail, extortion, and dirty money. No surprise that they requisition gold bars and Rolexes to pay double agents and informants. What IS a surprise is that apparently no one keeps track of it to determine what is being bought with it and whether it is worth the price. Other people’s money (ours).
On the other note, the first ones in get the deals, and the others do the hard time.
“Intelligence is a dirty business that runs on blackmail, extortion, and dirty money.”
According to retired CIA operative and author Gary Berntsen (
), for years when we were in [tribal] Afghanistan, the U.S. conducted it’s operations with the “blessings” of the regional feudal warlords by paying them off with bundles of $100 bills and bottles of Viagra.
Crime is a dirty business.
Did you say CIA?
The origins of the CIA in the 1950s.
Let’s take a look at the life and career of Allan Dulles (and his brother).
The fundamental question: Who does the CIA really work for? And what methods does it use?
Today’s CIA is a direct continuation of Dulles’s agency and its beneficiaries.
The story is fascinating, and today’s scandal is just one red herring among many.
With all sympathy for Pam Bondi for what she is enduring with the cancer treatment, you never would have seen the kind of action we’ve seen from the DOJ of late, let alone with this tempo, if she were still in charge.
When we term Washington a “swamp,” we’re not just being pejorative: It is one of the most corrupt moral cesspools on this planet. So it’s no wonder that when Trump comes in talking about cleaning it up, even going so far as to begin to do it (!), that they think nothing of trying to kill him, despite how much such an action would tear this country apart.
I pray for the protection of all those involved in trying to clean this cesspool, from the president on down, and that He will give the American people a respite, a moment when they can once again enjoy living in a country that is one people under God. As it is, it’s a tall order and only with God’s help can we have the wisdom and strength to succeed. The swamp politicians and administrative state are the beginning. The judges are not immune. Black robes might have protected a stolen election in 2020, and cost us a governorship in Arizona, but the time is coming when we’ll likely get to see why the judiciary was designed as the weakest of the three branches. God willing.
J
If an investigation is now being made public, that probably means it was started months ago.
The DOJ finally has enough evidence to file an indictment that will not only withstand attacks on its sufficiency, but also that will be the foundation for a case that can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
“All roads lead to Langley”: Sundance
No, that was Black Night.
“There is nothing to see in Langley.”
: CIA
Even the blind spot itself is used to gin up Limited Hangout theater distractions.
These people are super talented.
Meanwhile, the tectonics grind on…
So, ummm…
in the course of the see eye aye doing unaccounted business with various bad actors across the world – and at untold home –
someone noticed that no one was tallying the various exchanges ( purchasing of bad actors to do bad things or leveraging behaviors with little or no paper trail )
over the years…
so someone thought they could skim funds etc.
as a means to buy self protection in the various instances of getting caught skimming
( until someone decided to not become bought ( because their livelihood was looking dire – and money was not going to be useful in buying a get of jail etc. card )
The dishonest games people play….
..and some others play along…
…until what?
( hint: the truth arrives…
….people ( taxpayers etc. )
do not like giving money
and getting empty promises or wooden nickels in return. )
Many pols get funding to offer up a lot of words, rhetoric but little action to match the words.
Occasionally, a person does things that matches their rhetoric.
( a good thing, that the media sells as a bad thing ).
There are things to learn….every day… ( or not )…free choice.
Love thy neighbors
He lied about his background for two decades? That’s some HR department you’ve got.
I’m sure the intelligence that they provide is vetted with the same scrutiny. /sarc/
Precisely what I was thinking.
A few somebody’s butts should be on the line for him getting as far as he did for as long as he did. Utter failures in background checks and accounting.
That doesn’t include what should happen to him and the gold bar theft. Utter failures in background checks and accounting.
I didn’t realize that following the yellow brick road meant they were gold bars.
He had to have protection from higher-ups. I wonder if we’ll ever find out who and why.
That this is a public prosecution, and not his death from an “accident,” is interesting in itself.
They are not screeners.
They are facilitators.
I know right. Nobody at Langley read that dude’s crazy resumé and thought “hmm, maybe I’d better follow-up on some of this.”
IKR
Imagine how many other operatives have that much cash in hand?
Suicide watch!
I thought it was a Rolex?
Cartel rollover?
David Rush was obviously a big fan of Alfonso Bedoya!
“Receipts? We ain’t got no receipts. We don’t need no receipts. I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ receipts!”
Exactly.
“Nothing to see here”
Just what did everything think those massive black budgets for the IC fund anyway? ‘)
BINGO!
I wonder if this will turn out to be a real-life version of English novelist Graham Greene’s comic novel, Our Man in Havana (later a movie starring Alec Guinness). Greene based it on his experiences with MI6 during WWII.
In the novel, James Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman, is, for some reason, recruited as a spy in Havana, Cuba. Wormold needs money, as his wife has left him, and he wants to send his daughter to a good private school Since he has no espionage experience, he just makes up agents and intelligence, and gets paid for his reports.
After a series of both dangerous and comic (he uses pictures of vacuum cleaner parts as new secret technology), he ends up back in the UK, where, to keep him from talking to the press, MI6 gives him a job at its training center.
Great book and movie.
I read recently that “it was suspected” that lots of them gold bars in Fort Nox were not very pure.
I hope this ‘poor’ guy was not short changed by the taxpayer.
😂
So many commenters just assume that all Rush got away with with due to careless screening!
Immediately, my thoughts were that people were told NOT TO NOTICE! And that bigger fish than Rush had their hands in the cookie jar and bigger fish than they were, had their hands in it, too!
AND SO ON, AND SO ON, AND SO ON – AD INFINITUM!!!
BECAUSE THERE ARE SO VERY MANY COOKIE JARS!
THAT’s how a country gets TRILLIONS OF $$$ in debt!
DOGE EVERY SINGLE PAST AND PRESENT POLITICIAN, BUREAUCRAT, AND THEIR FAMILY AND FRIENDS BACK TO HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION!
THEIR JOB SECURITY SHOULD COME WITH ENORMOUS ONGOING SCRUTINY!!!
All the managers at the CIA were paid well to rig the election.
Now you see how well.
The watches were bonuses.
Some Rolex watches can be worth $450k.
It’s an easy way to “hide” ill gotten gains.
Need a quick $450k.
Just sell a watch.
No paper trail from the bank etc.
Not surprising at all. Heck one of my cousin’s made a LOT of money off of the whole CV19 scam. I hope she has to pay all of the money back. I just don’t like people who don’t know how to milk a real cow or goat for milk but sure find a way to milk a crisis.
David Rush was hired during the Obama Administration. The only thing more needing said is to find the rest of the currupt CIA/FBI employees from Obama and Biden era and fire them. They must certainly exist.
I think he probably was hired during Bush the Younger admin if he is a 20-year veteran of the Agency.
Wow. He conned, played and defrauded the CIA. So much for their polygraphs and periodic reinvestigations.
Maybe they need to recheck Brennan’s background?
Would it be possible that all your beliefs and assumptions about certain government agencies are exactly backward?
JMO.
The dirty little secret in DC is that the national democrat party has been funded 100% by the CIA for decades.
They picked the candidates, stole the elections and they laundered unconstitutional $$ to the so-called major democrat contributors as well as the ACTBLUE scam.
The CIA would have access to the money funneled into the USAID from the Continued Resolutions of Congress as well as the cash caches that had been housed overseas in foreign countries ……. you know, just part of the 5-eyes program.
President Trump shutdown the USAID and, through his tariff agreements with foreign countries, he emptied out the CIA’s cash caches and brought the $$ back into the US Treasury last year.
Looks like CIA employee David Rush may have been one of the last guys holding the bag of funds to be transferred when the system came crashing down after President Trump suddenly brought, to a halt, the CIA’s unconstitutional, treasonous funding scheme.
Now you know why the national democrats don’t have a leader …….. who would want to be running a bankrupt operation connected to a criminal cabal.
Executive Branch traitors Clinton / obummer / biden and their co-conspirators in the Legislative and Judicial Branches will be looking for an overseas country that doesn’t have extradition to the US.
President Trump is starting to bring the full weight of the 2026 MAGA / America First “new, sans Bondi, DOJ” down on the blue states / cities
Grab some popcorn, the show will go on for awhile.
MAGA / America First isn’t just our motto, it is our duty!
If that’s true about Democrats being funded by the CIA, that might explain why Republicans are so afraid to do to the Dems what the Dems always do to the Republicans. Politicians aren’t known for their bravery or honesty. This “big club” that “we ain’t in” (according George Carlin) is run on stolen taxpayer dollars and by dangerous people with no scruples and big guns.
Dear Lord God, protect our President and help us save our country. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Amen!
You can be a clean honest politician 99% of the time. But if you let the CIA or one of their operatives tempt you one time with a little money for the kids college fund or a honey hole on a congressional junket…they will own you forever. All it takes is an occasional reminder that they haven’t forgotten and you are suddenly sucked back into their scheming forever.
More popcorn will be needed for this one .. I’m sick to death of all the criminals in place of authority in this country .. I’m tired of being fleeced ..
The CIA is an entire government agency of LIARS. They train to be liars.
They practice blackmail and engage in torture and murder. They overthrow foreign governments.
Why should we be surprised they rigged the 2020 American presidential election?
Their budgets are secret. Elected members of the U.S. Senate and Congress FEAR THE POWER OF THE CIA.
Why should we be surprised to find the CIA to be FULL of traitorous scoundrels feathering their own nests?
I’m not.
Good. One. How many others?
How do you think Menendez got his gold bars? Probably by a “Rush” delivery.
–“From November through March, Rush made several requests for funds, including for foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars, according to an affidavit filed in federal court by an FBI agent investigating the case.
In a storage space near his office, investigators found only a portion of the funds. On May 18, federal agents searched Rush’s home and seized roughly 300 gold bars worth more than $40 million, court documents said. Agents also seized about $2 million in U.S. currency and 35 luxury watches, mostly Rolexes, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit alleges Rush knowingly took part of the money he requested for work-related expenses to his home for personal gain.”–
I keep looking back and focusing on these 3 paragraphs and what they may imply.
The time frame – November through March, just a 5 month period with several requests for funds in just 5 months.
The amount found– ” In a storage space near his office, investigators found only a portion of the funds.” And “Rush knowingly took part of the money he requested for work-related expenses to his home for personal gain.”
How much did he skim–1%? 5%?, 10%?–for this to be only “partial and part” of what he requested and received for “work related expenses”?
So….. Just how big was the total amount of gold and currency that the agency gave just one “senior official” in a 5 month period? 10% would equal over $400 Million. How much did he skim and how much did he request and receive over the entire 20 years he was there?
Whoever was supposed to be managing this criminal needs to be investigated also. And the guy above him and so on.
And how many programs/operations/people did this criminal manage? How many were also skimming?
Next question — How does the Department of Justice even take this to court when most evidence is “top secret”, “classified”, and “national security” protected from the American people and more importantly the jury?
Imagine the questions a good defense lawyer will ask the agency that they will not/can not answer in an open court because of being “classified”.
Military tribunals?
Thanks for your thoughts!!
Charles McGonigal was prosecuted in court at the SDNY. They can handle spook cases.
Thanks for your reply!
diane finestein had a chinese spy for 20 years, crickets and no indictments.
No wonder we probably have no gold left in Fort Knox. Just a rhetorical question: doesn’t anyone in government know how to spell A-U-D-I-T?
Probably not.
The entire federal government and all their employees, ESPECIALLY those in congress, needs a financial colonoscopy!!!
One tiny drop in the ocean of corruption that has been our swamp since forever. This is a feature not a glitch.
Remember when Barrycare was passed in the middle of the night and some intrepid reporter asked Pelosi if it was Constitutional and the queen of corruption chuckled and quipped something like, “don’t be silly”. Keep in mind pending on who you talk to she’s worth $200-400 million, another Potomac financial miracle.
Silly me, I always thought the Constitutionality of the laws was the measuring stick by which we organize our Great Land and these cretins swore an oath, “to protect and defend against all enemies foreign or domestic”.
Good catch, now climb the ladder and scoop up the real treasonous criminals.
Somewhere there is a court decision that laws passed by Congress are presumed to be constitutional.
I find the article to be unclear.
“secretly stashing millions of dollars in gold bars in his home that he said he needed for “work-related expenses,”
“knowingly took part of the money he requested for work-related expenses to his home for personal gain.”
Are they trying to say that CIA can request Gold Bars from work as work related expenses? Like to untracably pay off cartels or something? It doesn’t say that, but the article doesn’t make sense to me.
Thats what I read as well. Where is this repository of hundreds of millions of dollars in gold bars that can be requested like corporate golf swag.
We’re gonna need bigger prisons.
No picture of this guy anywhere…. how many more are there?
probably the really big story is how does a single cia officer “request” funds to amounts of this level and not have at least some kind of validation and audit that reconciles not only that the funds are legitimately utilized for a specific operation but are also tracked to understand they are being used for said operations.
In no reality could this kind of money be requested to fund a single agents solo operation. Senior managers cannot possible be allowed to self report, self audit. So this leads me to believe there was more than one person involved in a conspiracy.
then separately, one has to question how it was possible to convert all that cash….he was actually given cash in these amounts? by whom, and where? How was he able to convert the cash to gold bars. I ran the numbers. and here is the breakdown.
300 gold bars valued at 40 million. that is 1.3333 million dollars per gold bar.
using a mean price extracted from the last 10 years of gold spot prices (the assumption is that he accumulated these gold bars over an extended period of time and so we need to estimate spot gold prices over an extended period to determine the weight of each gold bar)….so the mean price of gold over the last ten years is approx. 1,981.10 (the last 2 years spot gold nearly doubled in price, so this means is heavily skewed by recent price increases.
for actual physical gold, any dealer will typically charged around 1-5 percent as a premium fee. With standard and simple proofed large bars carrying the smallest premium and artistic/designer bars carrying the higher premiums. Simple to understand that simple proofed bars do require sophisticated manufacturing methods versus high quality rendered bars that may offer some kind of stylish and elaborate collector type manufacturing designs.
so lets just use the simple standard proofed golds bars and assume a 2 percent premium charge per ounce.
at 1.333 million dollars per gold bar, with a 2 percent premium charge we are talking about approximately
wait for it.
684 ounces of physical gold PER BAR!
now if you are unfamiliar with this kind of weight, you are not alone.
typically you will find that gold bars of this size do not exist at all. In fact, the US central bank utilizes gold bars that are around 400 ounces. So this would be 160 percent more gold than even the central banks deal with ..per bar.
so this of course leads to another obvious set of questions.
who is supplying this single buyer with bars of this size? Literally I know of no dealer that would create gold bars of this size. It would require custom casting that isn’t unusually difficulty yet at the same time it doesn’t really make any sense to go to the effort to create bars of this size….so something doesn’t add up. literally it makes no sense to have this kind of weight, when what would be more practical is to simply have more bars created at the standard sizes and just have more of them.
a 684 ounce gold bar would weigh approx 47 pounds ! 30 at this weight would be 1,410 POUNDS in total weight.
wait.what? do you see the problem?
a 400 ounce (what you would ordinarily find as the maximum sized proofed commercial bar) would weigh approx 28 pounds, a substantial lower weight per bar. much more manageable and easier to conceal that big ass 47 pound slugs of gold.
so again this raises the question about why the unusually large oversized gold bar? and more specifically, who is casting gold bars of this size ? I know of no dealer who would go to the effort to create a casting of this size. It would be overkill and it would of course make the processing more difficult, and it would make the bars less “manageable”. at nearly 50 pounds per bar is an unwieldy massive chunk of metal that is much harder to transport, conceal and package. You really don’t have a lot of choices about how you might be able to transport bars of this size and still conceal the mass and size. It’s just weird.
so there are some questions here that raise lots of other flags.
who did he buy from? why the excessively large bars? why not just cast more bars at much smaller sized to make it much easier ?
and right at the top is how does a single so called veteran manager request cash and no one notices that there are no paper trails they can verify that the cash was being used correctly..that some mission or operation was financed by it? again….we are being given this narrative that a single CIA veteran manager can somehow sift 30 million dollars over an extended period of time and no one notices? That doesn’t sound right under even the most ridiculous kinds of possibilities.
I think there must be others involved…or as they say, often criminality can be simply explained by stupidity.
are we starting to realize that giving a secret police spy state zero accountability and self dealing is probably a really bad idea and that is going to be exploited…maximally.
gold rush…
I think I figured out the mission here. it was operation gold rush.
sounds about right.
God Bless America
Great math, you just needed to use the latest gold prices:
“…From November through March, Rush made several requests for funds, including for foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars,…”
Don’t forget media exaggeration and rounding errors….
I read an article on bulk bullion a year or two ago (sorry, no link, I don’t think I bookmarked it). IIRC, gold bars over 400 oz are not commercially made or used. 400 IS the standard.
There is a 200 Oz mini bar.
No, Regitiger, each bar is worth a little over $130,000. 3×130,000=390,000;
x100=$39,000,000.
Simple math error.
Yup! I came up with $133,333 per bar for 300 bars=$40 Million.
At time of article gold was around $4,500 per troy ounce so
roughly 29.6 troy ounces per bar.
you are correct sir….and that mistake led me right down a completely stupid rabbit hole too.
edit:
40,000,000 ÷ 300 = 133,333.333 dollar per bar
using the same 1981 per Troy ounce I used to estimate the mean value over a 10 year accumulation…plus a standard 2 percent premium for the sales.
means each bar would weigh approximately 2 pounds. a big difference compared to my math mistake.
and as others pointed out in replies, my mean figure of 1981 per Troy ounce is probably much lower than what he paid, given the article seems to infer his purchase happened more recently that I assumed in the math.
I’m still stuck on how this could have happened and no one noticed or bothered to notice…until now?
I am still convinced others were involved…paid off or had something similar going on.
sunlight is the best disinfectant. Oh wait…cia does open its books to anyone. It’s a secret organization where someone can literally write a fake resume and no one bothers to question it.
huh…another day at the cia where the day ends in Y.
God Bless America
I am glad to see this. The See-Aye-A has been operating under the cover of darkness for a very long time, to the country’s detriment. I hope the agency gets a thorough cleaning out, if not gutting, and gets back to its core mission of keeping America safe. Hopefully, the rats will flee the sinking ship.
Tulsi helped Ratcliffe along bc he was unable or unwilling to pull it all together. Tulsi is a REAL PATRIOT.
Perfect example of federal government REAL idiocy is portrayed in Burn After Reading movie. We all know or should know it’s DC daily stupidity but can do nothing about it.
This news should not be a big surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to American politics for any length of time.
We know that our government, along with their public-private partners, have been looting the treasury for decades.
We know that it would be impossible for the billion dollar drug and human trafficking industries to flourish in the United States without direct involvement of the FBI and CIA (among others). Of course they are getting paid.
We know that our government’s color revolution operations around the world generate billions in filthy lucre. Those billions are spread around in varying amounts to all who are involved.
We can be certain that CIA functionary David Rush is just the tip of the iceberg. I pray that President Trump and his administration continue to expose the corruption and punish the evil doers.
We are so screwed as an Amn citizen and taxpayer.
EVERY person ‘working’ on capitol hill, Pentagon, or in DC are crooked, corrupt and have untenable powers that keep them that way. THey are insulated from ever being convicted or merely arrested.
THey are wealthy b/c they are pd enormous salaries and THEN TAKE what they can in every and any way possible.
We can’t VOTE change, period.
Tx changed come Tues night BUT Paxton won’t move the needle.
Most states are just as corrupt and I’m speaking GOP-wise NOT dems. THey are evil bad, but GOP are just as bad.
This man is a representation of what every abc agency is, capitol hill reps (please don’t call them representatives), staffers, lobbyists.
I hope he ROTS in prison; yet I don’t fool myself into thinking he will ever be convicted or detained in any federal prison.. Prison is reserved for J6.
He must hold of scammer Somalian’s,
Did he work with Menendez?
Was Menendez on the Intel or Foreign Relations committees?
“Need your vote. Here’s that Rolex your mistress wanted.”
Sundance’s headline here made me recall the old line that ‘a man with one watch knows what time it is, a man with two watches is never sure.’ A man with 35 Rolexes should know he’s going to jail but the last years have jaded me enough to think that’s never going to happen to this guy.
Is there anyone not scamming the US taxpayer?
The Trump family.
One cannot trust anything that comes from the DC swamp.