David Rush pleaded guilty to wire fraud after agents found gold bars in his Virginia home.

A guilty plea to wire fraud is a conviction on that count. It is not the prison term, and it is not a separate espionage conviction. NBC News and the BBC reported Tuesday that Rush, 49, admitted the wire-fraud count. In the same plea papers, they reported, he admitted disclosing information about a clandestine U.S. source to a foreign official. That admission travels with the deal. It is not its own count of conviction in the accounts those outlets published.

NBC News reported Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, that David Rush, 49, pleaded guilty in Alexandria, Virginia, to one count of wire fraud, and that U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff approved the agreement. Sentencing is set for Jan. 28, and NBC News reported the count carries a maximum of 20 years. The BBC reported the deal requires him to pay nearly $200 million in restitution and to forfeit luxury real estate, cars, watches, and other assets tied to the crime. WJLA reported a fine of up to $250,000, full restitution, and forfeiture of assets that resulted from the crimes. Until Tuesday, NBC News reported, the formal charge had been one count of theft of public funds, accusing him of falsifying pay records. WJLA described the May arrest charge as theft of government property. Those are two descriptions of the case that existed before the plea. The conviction entered Tuesday is the wire-fraud count.

NBC News reported that investigators seized about 300 gold bars at Rush's Virginia home, along with about $2 million in cash and 35 luxury watches, and that officials on Tuesday revised an earlier figure of 303 bars to 298. The BBC reported 298 bars, worth more than $40 million, taken for what he had called work-related expenses. WJLA, citing the FBI affidavit from the May 18 search, reported more than 300 bars worth more than $40 million, about $2 million in currency, and about 35 watches. A bar count revised on the day of the plea is the later figure. It does not change which count he admitted. NBC News reported Justice Department officials said he siphoned off $194 million, including a $45 million transfer in January that an employee sent at his direction, $145 million moved toward four luxury properties and vehicles in South Florida, and $1.8 million in private charter flights a CIA review later found had no legitimate official requirement. The BBC reported the plea papers say he fabricated a highly classified program to justify the real estate, which he intended to resell, and that he effectively acted as his own approving official. NBC News reported he had been a senior officer in the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology, was placed on leave, and was fired. He has been in jail since his arrest on May 19.

NBC News reported that the plea document says Rush admitted that in late 2025 he disclosed descriptive information about a U.S. government clandestine human source to a foreign official, information prosecutors said could endanger that source and the officers working with the source. The BBC reported the plea deal says he provided top-secret data to a foreign government official who was not authorized to receive it. That is an admission written into the wire-fraud agreement. It is not a separate conviction for a national-security offense in the charging account either outlet published. CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the agency immediately referred the case to the FBI and that Rush abused his position and betrayed the public trust. FBI Director Kash Patel said Rush defrauded the government of hundreds of millions of dollars and misused the funds for extravagant purchases. NBC News reported that Steve Feinberg, whom it described as the Defense Department's second in command, was interviewed by the FBI, is not accused of wrongdoing, and is not under investigation, and that a Pentagon spokesman said Feinberg and Rush were not close. Lawyers for Rush declined to comment, NBC News and the BBC reported. Jan. 28 is the date set for the term. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.