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A jury on Monday found a retired four-star admiral guilty of bribery charges.
Retired four-star Navy Adm. Robert Burke, once the U.S. Navy’s second-highest-ranking officer, was found guilty of a scheme to steer government contracts to his future employer.
Retired 4-star Navy Adm. Robert P. Burke convicted in bribery schemehttps://t.co/7xj4TwVfg8 pic.twitter.com/YbZ2t7Xjbr
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) May 20, 2025
From the New York Post:
Burke, who served as the vice chief of naval operations during part of President Trump’s first term, was convicted of conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, performing acts affecting a personal financial interest and concealing material facts from the US after a five-day trial.
Formerly the Navy’s second-highest-ranking officer, Burke is now the most senior member of the US military to ever be convicted of a federal crime.
“When you abuse your position and betray the public trust to line your own pockets, it undermines the confidence in the government you represent,” Pirro said in a statement after the verdict. “Our office, with our law enforcement partners, will root out corruption — be it bribes or illegal contracts — and hold accountable the perpetrators, no matter what title or rank they hold.”
Burke, 63, was indicted in the case investigated by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and the FBI’s Washington Field Office last May.
He was accused of accepting a $500,000 yearly salary and a grant of 100,000 stock options from his co-conspirators, Yongchul “Charlie” Kim and Meghan Messenger, in exchange for using his position as a Navy admiral to steer a government contract to an entity named in the indictment as “Company A.”
A retired four-star admiral who once was the Navy’s second-highest ranking officer was convicted of federal bribery and conspiracy charges in a scheme to direct lucrative contracts to a training company in exchange for a $500,000-a-year job.https://t.co/q8a9icqFet
— Stars and Stripes (@starsandstripes) May 19, 2025
Military.com reports:
Tim Parlatore, the lawyer for Burke, called the decision a wrongful verdict and told Military.com that it was the result of a hasty trial in which the government went to great lengths to present evidence that showed only half the story. Parlatore noted that the trial was initially set to run for three weeks but concluded in five days and with the government not even presenting all of its evidence.
“This case demonstrates that when you start with a bad investigation by incompetent investigators, you end up with a case that the only way you can get a conviction is by hiding the evidence from the jury,” he said.
Parlatore, who has represented several other high-profile military figures, said that he plans to file an appeal.
Military.com reached out to the Justice Department for comment but did not immediately receive a reply.
Next Jump was awarded its first Navy contract in early 2018 for around $2 million. A second contract followed later that year for $10 million “to train part of the Navy workforce,” according to court documents the company filed last year.
At that time, the Navy was reeling from a pair of deadly at-sea collisions in the Pacific Ocean that not only killed nearly 20 sailors but also exposed a problematic culture that was willing to ignore years of warnings about fatigue, poor training and leadership uninterested in hearing any pleas for help.
Burke was Next Jump’s main point of contact for the Navy and, according to the company, by 2019 he had their two top executives, Charlie Kim and Meghan Messenger, chasing a $100 million proposal that would be their biggest contract yet.
However, at trial, Parlatore argued that Kim and Messenger were merely “wannabe defense contractors” who were lying to company investors as part of an effort to grow their business.
The contract never materialized and, according to court transcripts, the company was getting negative feedback on the training it had conducted.
Still, the group had a meeting at a restaurant in Washington, D.C., that included Burke’s girlfriend and, according to the prosecution, they “solidified their agreement and worked out the details — a contract for a job.”
