FBI Arrests CIA Official with $40M in Gold Bars in His Home

(nytimes.com)

83 points | by cwwc 3 hours ago ago

38 comments

  • vostrocity an hour ago

    How porous is the CIA's interview process that they couldn't validate the guy's military discharge status?

    • EA-3167 8 minutes ago

      When it comes to stories involving intelligence agencies I generally assume that I’m not getting the whole or accurate story.

  • hnthrowaway0315 an hour ago

    Maybe 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.

    • moralestapia 37 minutes ago

      I don't think it's connected to this, but there's a lot of lore about fold moving in/out of Afghanistan, Iraq and others during war time.

    • themafia 11 minutes ago

      They want globalization to make their jobs easier. In no sense do they "need" it. Whether we want a world where the desires of intelligence and finance are blindly prioritized is an open question. For my part the answer is obviously no.

    • JumpCrisscross 42 minutes ago

      It’s almost certainly grift. If it were official, the arrest would have been scrubbed.

    • hmmokidk 43 minutes ago

      Epstein and Mossad

      Not the first

      • hnthrowaway0315 8 minutes ago

        The shadow world has its own rules and morals.

  • exabrial 19 minutes ago

    If this were a Jason Bourne movie, it was the CIA that put the gold bars there.

  • NooneAtAll3 25 minutes ago

    That's ~280kg of gold if anyone wonders

    • xnx 22 minutes ago

      It would make such a fantastic set of barbell plates.

      • CSSer 10 minutes ago

        Gold is pretty soft. You would have to cut it to 10 carat, so there’s be even more to go around!

  • mmooss 14 minutes ago

    The 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.

  • delichon an hour ago

    A 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?

    • wildzzz 11 minutes ago

      Anna Paulina Luna is the only one claiming that the CIA raided the office of the DNI. No other trustworthy sources are reporting this and there's been no independent verification. Anna Paulina Luna is a lunatic who says outlandish things with no regards to truth.

    • greesil 29 minutes ago

      Because nobody reputable reported on it?

      • foobar1726 24 minutes ago

        Reputable reporters know that publishing those stories leads to break-in burglaries where everyone is killed and nothing is stolen.

    • NordStreamYacht 40 minutes ago

      The DNI, not the NSA.

    • dabadabad00 an hour ago

      > Who runs this country?

      American Thought Control.

      Crazy crackpot schizos aren’t the only ones listening to the voices in their heads.

  • JumpCrisscross 43 minutes ago

    Huh. I’m actually glad to see the IC fragmenting like this.

    • chatmasta 22 minutes ago

      Is 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 19 minutes ago

        > article even notes that this particular investigation was initiated when the CIA director made a referral to the FBI

        Fair enough.

  • Computer0 21 minutes ago

    I'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.

  • sleepyguy an hour ago

    Sounds 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 an hour 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 an hour ago

        The "resources" are off the books, it must be just the tip of the iceberg.

    • fn-mote an hour ago

      I thought this was baseless speculation, but from TFA:

      > [he] asked for, and received, “a significant quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses.

    • golem14 9 minutes ago

      Yeah, this reads like right out of "Burn notice".

  • AmazingEveryDay 3 hours ago

    This seems absolutely crazy. Probably Fort Knox should be inventoried, might indeed not be anything there!

    • yieldcrv 23 minutes ago

      This 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

  • johnea an hour ago

    > millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses.

    Hey, handing over millions of $$s to local warlords is a business expense...

  • contingencies an hour ago

    CIA: Corruption Institute of America

  • simpaticoder an hour ago

    So what is that, like 10 gold bars?

    EDIT: it's 240. but still, they were worth a lot less not that long ago...

    • mlmonkey an hour ago

      According to the article, 303 gold bars worth about $40M.

  • mlmonkey an hour ago

    Gold 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/d...

    • ozgrakkurt an hour ago

      None 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.