A retired four-star admiral who once served as the Navy’s second-highest ranking officer has been convicted of bribery and conspiracy charges, making him the most senior U.S. military official ever found guilty of a federal crime committed while on active duty.
Admiral Robert P. Burke, 62, who previously served as Vice Chief of Naval Operations, was found guilty Monday following a five-day trial. He faces up to 30 years in prison for directing lucrative contracts to a training company in exchange for a $500,000-a-year job after leaving the Navy.
“When you abuse your position and betray the public trust to line your own pockets, it undermines the confidence in the government you represent,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said following the conviction.
Burke was convicted of bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, performing acts affecting a personal financial interest, and concealing material facts from the United States. He was arrested in May 2024 after federal prosecutors accused him of funneling a $355,000 contract to Next Jump, a New York-based training company that later hired him after his retirement.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, from 2020 to 2022, Burke oversaw U.S. naval operations in Europe, Russia, and most of Africa, commanding thousands of civilian and military personnel. During this period, he engaged in a scheme with Next Jump’s co-CEOs, Yongchul “Charlie” Kim and Meghan Messenger, who were also charged in the case.
Next Jump had previously provided a workforce training pilot program to a small component of the Navy from August 2018 through July 2019, before the Navy cancelled the contract. The Navy specifically instructed the company not to contact Burke.
“Despite the Navy’s instructions, the co-defendants met with Burke in Washington, D.C. in July 2021, to reestablish [Next Jump’s] business relationship with the Navy,” federal prosecutors said. They “agreed that Burke would use his position as a Navy admiral to steer a contract to [Next Jump] in exchange for future employment at the company.”
In December 2021, Burke ordered his staff to award the company a $355,000 contract to train Naval personnel under his command in Italy and Spain. He also attempted unsuccessfully to convince another senior Naval commander to give Next Jump an additional contract.
Kim had estimated these contracts could eventually be worth “triple digit millions” to the company. In October 2022, Next Jump announced on its Facebook page that Burke would join the firm as a senior partner with an annual base salary of $500,000.
To conceal the scheme, prosecutors said Burke made false and misleading statements to the Navy, implying that employment discussions with Next Jump only began months after the contract was awarded. He also omitted crucial information on required government ethics disclosure forms.
Burke’s defense attorney, Timothy Parlatore, expressed disappointment with the verdict, claiming “the jury did not get to hear the whole story.”
“There was no connection between this contract and his employment. The math just doesn’t make sense that he would give them this relatively small contract for that type of job offer,” Parlatore previously told Fox News.
Parlatore also criticized the investigation, calling it “poorly conducted” and comparing it to the “Fat Leonard” case, another major Navy corruption scandal.
“They didn’t do any research and so you have an incompetent and unethical, corrupt investigator relying upon the word of a known liar, building this terrible case. And ultimately, the only way that they could bring it to a conviction was to only present certain evidence to the jury,” Parlatore said.
Kim and Messenger were arrested in May 2024 and charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and bribery. They each face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden has scheduled Burke’s sentencing for August 22.