The chief financial officer of an international nondenominational Christian school in Kona admitted Monday in U.S. District Court to stealing more than $3 million from the school.

Pablo M. Rivera pleaded guilty to wire fraud for lying in email communications with school officials about the cost of construction and maintenance projects at Youth With a Mission’s University of Nations campus in Kailua-Kona.

He faces a prison term of up to 20 years and a maximum fine of $250,000 at sentencing in August. He must also pay back the $3,096,241 he stole and will forfeit money and property the government identified as proceeds of his crime.

The items Rivera will forfeit include his home in Colorado, a condominium in Waikoloa, a sport utility vehicle in Colorado, $71,790 in various bank and trading accounts, $11,322 in cash and a precious-gem ring. He will also forfeit items that were in a safe deposit box in Colorado, including two diamond rings, five loose cut diamonds and 114 grams of gold dust and gold nuggets.

The government has not identified for forfeiture a gold mine and $70,000 to $80,000 worth of mining equipment that Rivera’s lawyer said Rivera owns in Sierra Leone.

The government says Rivera stole the money from around September 2014 to this past January by inflating the cost of the work done by a contractor and then withdrawing the difference from the contractor’s bank account. The Minnesota-based contractor told the FBI that he put Rivera’s name on the company’s account because Rivera told him it was necessary to comply with Hawaii regulations. Rivera told a company official that money from the withdrawals went to pay subcontractors.

Rivera’s lawyer had said in court that Rivera, who lives in Colorado, came to Hawaii in January to tell the school’s board what he had done. The federal prosecutor said Rivera lied to the board when he said he stole $500,000.

When school officials reported the theft to the FBI, they estimated Rivera had stolen between $1.5 million and $2 million. By late February the government’s tally was up to $2.5 million.

The $3,096,241 is the amount all parties, including Rivera, agree that he stole.