Federal prosecutors have reached a tentative plea agreement with a former CIA officer accused of stealing hundreds of gold bars worth more than $40m from the US spy agency and hiding them in his basement, court records show.
David Rush and federal justice department prosecutors have a “plea agreement in principle”, the parties said in a Friday court filing. The parties also asked a judge to extend the 17 September deadline for three weeks through 8 October to allow them time to “resolve the matter prior to an indictment”.
“The parties need additional time to prepare the paperwork, including an agreed upon statement of facts,” assistant US attorney Raizza Ty and Rush’s attorney, Jessica Carmichael, wrote in the joint filing. “A pre-indictment resolution promotes the public interest by conserving government and judicial resources.”
There were no further details in the court filing about the working plea agreement.
Rush, a former executive service-level employee for the CIA, was fired after allegedly taking 303 bullion bars, each weighing 2.2lb (1kg) – and more than $2m in foreign currency – from his government office, according to an FBI affidavit. The search of his home in Virginia also turned up 35 luxury watches, many of them Rolex.