A former CIA officer who was arrested after authorities found hundreds of gold bars stashed in his home has admitted to defrauding the US government in a sprawling $200m (£151m) scam involving fake contracts and real estate.

David Rush, 49, is required to pay restitution to the government and forfeit luxury real estate, cars, watches and other assets tied to his crime as part of the plea deal.

Rush also confessed to providing secrets to a foreign government, which could have caused “grave damage” to national security.

“The defendant will plead guilty because the defendant is in fact guilty of the charged offense,” prosecutors stated in a court filing outlining the plea deal.

The BBC has contacted Rush’s lawyer, who declined to comment.

Rush was initially charged with theft of public funds, but has now pleaded guilty to wire fraud. At the time of his arrest, a raid on his home uncovered 298 gold bars that he had received for “work-related expenses”.

Court filings around the deal bring new details to light, including that Rush revealed the existence and description of a “clandestine human source” to a foreign official.

“The disclosure of such information could endanger the safety and life of the human source and the US government officers working with the source and jeopardize the US government’s ability to recruit human sources, who rely on the US government’s assurances of absolute secrecy,” prosecutors said in the filing.

In a news release, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Rush “abused his position and betrayed the public trust and should be held fully accountable for his actions”.

FBI investigators said that between November 2025 to March 2026 Rush made repeated requests for “a significant quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses”.

“Rush fabricated a highly classified program to justify the acquisition of luxury real estate in South Florida, which he then intended to resell for personal profit,” the court filing laying out the deal states.

Rush “effectively acted as his own approving official, enabling him to expend substantial amounts of United States government money without meaningful scrutiny”, according to the filing.

He then used “fraudulently obtained” public funds to acquire luxury real estate properties in southern Florida. According to the court filing, part of the scam included hiring an interior designer and purchasing $40,000 worth of kitchen appliances for one property.

The wire transfer charge was related to a $45m transfer that he initiated in January 2026. The plea deal also says that he provided top secret data to “a foreign government official who was not authorised to receive it and had no need to know it”.