Pentagon's Feinberg Backed CIA Officer Found With $40 Million in Gold Bars
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 10
Pentagon's Feinberg Backed CIA Officer Found With $40 Million in Gold Bars
2 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 10
Summary
Stephen A. Feinberg, the deputy defense secretary, asked the CIA earlier this year to give David J. Rush a bigger role in a highly classified China-focused spying program.
Rush was later found with $40 million in gold bars at his home and is now under FBI investigation; court records indicate he may have defrauded the CIA of millions.
U.S. officials said Feinberg did not know about the criminal investigation when he advocated for Rush, underscoring how trusted Rush remained inside a small circle handling sensitive secrets.
The two men had known each other since at least Trump's first term, when Feinberg led the President's Intelligence Advisory Board and took particular interest in the CIA's science and technology directorate where Rush worked.
A top spy stole $40M in gold. How deep does the rot go in U.S. intelligence agencies' most sensitive programs?
With his firm winning defense contracts, can the Pentagon's Deputy Secretary truly be impartial in his official duties?
Exposed: CIA Officer David Rush’s $40 Million Gold Fraud and the Oversight Failures That Enabled It
Overview
The arrest of senior CIA officer David Rush exposed a major breach of trust and revealed deep vulnerabilities in the agency’s oversight. Rush created a fake top-secret program, exploiting the extreme secrecy and lack of transparency in Special Access Programs to siphon over $40 million in government funds, which he converted into gold bars. This elaborate scheme went undetected due to insufficient internal controls, minimal external scrutiny, and failures in continuous personnel monitoring. The case has sparked urgent calls for stronger financial audits, independent reviews, and better accountability to prevent similar abuses within highly classified intelligence operations.