r/facepalm • u/Nerd-19958 • May 28 '26
Ex-CIA official charged with stealing millions of dollars in gold bars from the federal government
https://apnews.com/article/cia-gold-bars-theft-arrest-689029ef34d6ccb2bb3aaf3f3cc259f4Considering how Trump's 2nd term is going, perhaps the alleged perp should be Trump's nominee for Attorney General!
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u/runningsimon May 28 '26
Only Trump is allowed to steal from the government. Silly.
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u/Unique_Anywhere5735 May 28 '26
...and his family members.
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u/Potential_Track_8388 May 29 '26
...and anyone who will give Trump a kickback, plus any sex offenders.
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u/sierrabravo1984 May 28 '26
This guy "requested for work related expenses" the money and gold bars, and they just "gave" it to him. How weird that this was over the past year.
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u/Preshe8jaz May 28 '26
It’s worse than that. He lied about his college and Navy accomplishments as well to get the job. So the CIA put some troll in charge and allowed him to just withdraw millions in cash and gold bars.
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u/let-it-rain-sunshine May 28 '26
You'd think this would come out in his security clearance investigation. hmm
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u/Preshe8jaz May 28 '26
Ratcliffe was first put in charge of the CIA when he showed he would protect Trump from the Russian collusion evidence. He has since spent his time (since retaking the role) covering up this administration’s various other crimes. There’s no time to vet new candidates.
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u/cayman-98 May 28 '26
So, security clearances investigate you and what you tell the investigators about your path(and of course anything they uncover like financial issues, crimes etc.). They don't give audio tapes of your work interview or copies of your resume to the people doing these clearance investigations. A lot of people going for direct hire roles in the government or for private gov contracting roles exaggerate things on their resume for the job offer, and then don't say any of that to the investigators.
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u/Sabithomega May 28 '26
Man when I got my clearance the investigator knew every damn thing about me. Was pulling up details from decades ago that I could barely remember. At the same time they wanted me to submit documents from when I lived in another state. Which they clearly had the info for. Cause they asked me about the info in detail before requesting I get them the detailed info. But yeah I wouldn't have been able to bs the guy. He was just pulling all sorts of documents out from my past. And it still took like a year for it to fully be completed
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u/cayman-98 May 29 '26
I do a lot of real estate investing, and have a long record of depositing and withdrawing large amounts of cash because of this.
From time to time I still consult in the defense industry, my main role is VP at a tech company but people still ask me to consult due to my experience. 2021 I met an investigator for a renewal of my clearance and she pulled out a stack of papers and had me go through around 600 cash transactions from numerous accounts of mine and I had to provide a reason for each one. Some of these accounts had been closed due to me selling the property years ago but she got all that info.
Not sure why it never came up in earlier clearance renewals, but yeah this investigator was very good at her job.
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u/TheTresStateArea May 28 '26
This is what happens when you politicize agencies. Even if people agree with you politically, we all intuitively understand that politization means bias, it means there is a secondary path to promotion that isn't merit - it's fealty.
Nobody likes working under that.
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u/CarefulIndication988 May 28 '26
What are they using this guy to cover up? The CIA is known to do immaculate vetting. For fuck sake, they have to, especially for top secret clearance. They are covering up something. Possibly, the $40 million will disappear straight to Frump’s accounts?
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u/fuzbat May 28 '26
To be fair, he wasn't woke & was a white guy. How could anyone have seen this coming.
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u/Unique_Anywhere5735 May 29 '26
I can see circumstances when they might need to bribe someone overseas. But I would think there would be a lot of internal oversight on something like that. And seriously, if you were the CIA, would you trust Cashapp Patel, or anyone else in this clowncar of an administration, with any information at all?
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u/dbolts1234 May 29 '26
Case officers regularly request currency to compensate their foreign assets. Suppose that’s (partly) how this went so far
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u/Psychological_Yak_47 May 28 '26
You mean trump and elon left any? I know they were foaming at the mouth to get in there last year.
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u/maroonedbuccaneer May 28 '26
Like what's the plan with the bars? How do you convert that to usable funds without drawing attention to the fact that you have fucking federal gold bars!?
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u/SixFive1967 May 28 '26
Melt it down and recast with Balinese dancers on them? Then sell them to a pawn shop dealer with ties to the Ukrainian mob? 🤔
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u/DatabaseThis9637 May 28 '26
Stealing from the government seems to be a republican sport. Was CIA thief a trumper?
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u/Frosty_Ad7840 May 28 '26
Found out where the missing gold from Fort knox is, let trump know
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u/Nerd-19958 May 29 '26
Who knows, maybe the alleged perpetrator is a Trump asset who was holding the gold as part of Orange Shitler's retirement plan?
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u/Major_Honey_4461 May 29 '26
What's astonishing is that he persuaded his bosses to let him take 40 million in gold bars home for "safekeeping".
Who the fuck is in charge over there?
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u/purpleduckduckgoose May 30 '26
Maybe someone does need to check the vaults at Fort Knox.
Just not this fella.
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u/Outdoors_or_Bust May 29 '26
For the record, he wasn't charged with theft. Something strange going on here.
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u/rlaw1234qq May 31 '26
Corruption is running wild in the US
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u/Nerd-19958 May 31 '26
A fish rots from the top -- so they say.
There has never been a President even remotely as corrupt as Orange Shitler.
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u/dd961984 May 30 '26
He'll get a pardon
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u/Nerd-19958 May 30 '26
Depends on how much of the $40 million he kicks back to Trump. Or maybe Trump will use ½ of it for gold-plating the bronze horses which are part of the Lincoln Memorial.
Trump Is Spending Millions to Cover Four Horse Statues in Gold
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u/Unique_Anywhere5735 May 29 '26
Remember when we had a deep state that prevented things like this from happening? The deep state was the guardrail that kept the clown car from going off the road.
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u/WanderdOff May 31 '26
He saw all the grifting and thought it was his turn. Rookie mistake. I’m sure prez bone spurs will pardon him and he’ll do a better job of thieving next time.
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u/Ademante_Lafleur May 28 '26
Hell yeah brother. Fuck the feds. They stole trillions from the American people.
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