WASHINGTON — A wannabe spy convinced the CIA to give him $40 million in gold bars by claiming it was for “work-related expenses” — and it was just the latest in a lengthy career full of increasingly brazen lies, according to federal prosecutors.

David Rush made a series of requests to the agency to obtain “a significant quantity” of foreign currency and hundreds of gold bars between November and March, according to a federal affidavit.

Astonishingly, Rush received what he asked for, according to the court documents, and the agency was later unable to locate any record of Rush explaining the work-related purpose for the enormous sums.

When the FBI raided his Virginia home on May 18, they found $2 million in greenbacks, 35 luxury watches — “many of which” were Rolexes — and more than 300 one-kilogram gold bars worth over $40 million.

The price of the precious metal has skyrocketed 164% this year, which sharply increased the value of his alleged scheme.

Dan Meyer, a partner at the law firm Tully Rinckey specializing in security clearance issues, told The Post that the tens of millions of dollars in gold bars and US currency appeared to be “resources to be used in US operations overseas” that were “diverted for his personal use.”

“I doubt this is coming from a foreign source,” he added.

Former CIA staff operations officer Tracy Walder told The Post she was shocked Rush managed to lie his way to his top secret security clearance job and get his hands on so much gold from the agency.

“The fact that this slipped through the cracks makes me concerned that there are other people who slipped through the cracks,” she said.

Having gone through the agency’s rigorous vetting process herself, Walder said it was no casual affair.

“They don’t just verify your college. They came to my sorority house. They talked to my sorority sisters. They came to my parents’ house. They went to the friends of the friends of my parents,” she said of the process she herself endured before joining the agency.

“This would have been a large-scale lying cover-up. There would have had to be a lot of other co-conspirators,” she said.

Court documents alleged that the FBI’s investigation revealed Rush provided false information about his education and military service for decades — using each lie to attain a higher and higher position in the military and government.

In three separate employment applications to join the CIA, he allegedly falsely claimed to have degrees from Clemson University in South Carolina and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Upstate New York — as well as an evaluation certification from the US Naval Test Pilot School.

None of these claims were accurate, according to the affidavit, nor was an undated assertion in one of the applications that he had attained a master’s degree in computing technology from the Naval Postgraduate School.

But the subterfuge apparently worked for decades, and Rush achieved his dream of working for the CIA, where he allegedly continued exaggerating his accomplishments for advancement and financial gain.

Meyer said Rush’s many fabrications about his credentials should’ve been “flagged” in a CIA background check.

“These are things that are normally picked out pretty easily in the security process. It’s all verifiable. They got adjudicators and background people,” Meyer said. “Why did they miss it with this guy?”

“And if this guy got through, who else got through?” he asked. “It’s that one person who gets through. What happens when they deliver the stunning blow? We have to win all the time on security review and in this case we didn’t win.”

Meyer also called on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees to probe Rush’s case, citing the CIA’s internal oversight failure to prevent the gold bars and other currency from being pocketed.

“They need to get off their lazy duffs, and they need to burrow in and do an investigation,” he declared.

Neighbors who live a few doors down from Rush’s $975,000 house in the upscale northern Virginia neighborhood said they could clearly hear the May 18 FBI raid unfolding from inside their homes. One woman said at first she thought the sound was coming from her TV.

The woman said she had seen Rush and his wife playing with their two young kids in the yard sometimes, but that they never spoke.

Another neighbor said he was awakened to the sound of a loudspeaker outside the Rush’s house demanding he come outside.

He said the normally quiet suburban street was lined with FBI vehicles including an armored personnel carrier, and that many of the agents were armed and wearing tactical gear.

As the raid progressed into the afternoon, the neighbor, who also requested anonymity, said he saw FBI agents wheeling dolly carts loaded with large cardboard boxes out of the home.

The neighbor said he didn’t know Rush and his family.

“We’ll see each other in passing and say ‘Hey, how’s it going’ but that’s about it.”

He said he hasn’t spoken to anyone in the family since the raid.

In a 2009 form Rush submitted to obtain top secret security clearance with the spy agency, he wrote that he received a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and information systems from Clemson University in 2000 and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from RPI in 2004.

Both institutions told investigators they had no record of Rush ever attending, but he likely weaseled his way into a bigger paycheck due to this false association.

Investigators noted that federal employee salaries are determined by factors such as education, and that a worker with a master’s degree as Rush purported to have “would generally be expected to receive a higher pay scale” than less-credentialed coworkers.

He also constructed a bogus narrative about his military record to line his pockets, complete with rank inflation, claims of being an experienced pilot and collecting false military leave.

He wrote in a 2018 application to enter the CIA’s Senior Executive Service rank that he had graduated from the Air Force Test Pilot School, and even said he was the current director of test for a 145-person, 18-aircraft joint Army/Navy weapons test organization.

In the same application, he stated he served 11 years as a thesis and dissertation advisor at the Air Force Institute of Technology.

But his dubious claims were all uncovered when investigators reviewed his military personnel file and found no evidence he was ever a pilot for the Navy — or that he underwent any evaluations to become a pilot.

Rather than the Top Gun high-flyer he made himself out to be, Rush’s file revealed his actual job included roles like “information systems technician,” according to the affidavit.

The Federal Aviation Administration told authorities Rush “does not have an FAA certificate/pilots license” and that the agency had “no records” of him in their system.

Rush was actually in the US Navy for nearly 20 years. He enlisted in 1997 and was commissioned as an ensign in the US Navy Reserves in 2004 on the strength of his nonexistent Clemson degree in his fib-filled transcript.

He received an honorable discharge as a lieutenant in February 2015, and the affidavit notes he was “not enlisted or commissioned” in any branch of the US military since that date.

Yet as recently as last September Rush was representing himself as not only a current Navy Reserves member, but as a captain.

The investigation further uncovered that Rush has claimed 744 hours of military leave on his official timesheet since his discharge more than 11 years ago, worth approximately $77,000 in compensation, the documents state.

The CIA confirmed he was employed by the agency and had been investigated.

“On Tuesday, May 19th, the FBI arrested an individual following a referral from the Central Intelligence 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,” a CIA spokesperson said in a statement.

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.”

Rush’s defense attorney Jessica Carmichael declined to comment when reached by The Post Thursday.