Last June, we posted about the arrest of Robert P. Burke, a retired four-star Navy Admiral, on bribery charges. This week, a federal jury convicted the former Vice Chief of Naval Operations of four counts of bribery for steering a contract to a private company in exchange for a post-retirement job. Burke, the Navy’s former second-in-command, becomes the highest-ranking U.S. military officer to be convicted of a crime while on active duty, according to The Washington Post.
Burke was convicted of one count each of bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, affecting personal financial interest and false official statement in connection with his relationship with the executive training firm, Next Jump.
Burke is scheduled for sentencing Aug. 22. He could face 20 to 30 years in prison.
Burke initially contacted Next Jump after a series of scandals involving U.S. Navy officers and defense contractor Leonard Francis, known as “Fat Leonard.” Ironically, the contract was to help address a perceived ethical and leadership crisis in the service. But his own decisions then created another ethical crisis, as noted by the Navy Times.
“I was allowing myself to be influenced in ways that were inappropriate,” Burke said in a secretly recorded Oct. 3, 2023, interview with Navy criminal investigators, the Post reported. “I put myself in positions that allowed [Next Jump] to influence me, and I didn’t fully disclose everything.”
Co-CEOs and co-defendants Charlie Kim and Meghan Messenger oversaw Next Jump and conducted a workforce training pilot for the Navy from 2018 to 2019. But the Navy terminated the contract in late 2019 and directed the company not to contact Burke.
However, the admiral met with the co-CEOs in Washington in July 2021 to “reestablish [Next Jump’s] business relationship with the Navy,” according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
In the meeting, the CEOs agreed that Burke would use his position to steer the contract to their company for future contracts that could potentially be worth millions.
In December 2021, Burke ordered his staff to award a $355,000 contract to Next Jump to train personnel under his command in Italy and Spain. The company performed the training.
Burke then tried to get another contract for the company by persuading another admiral to sign off on it. He made several “false and misleading statements to the Navy” to conceal the scheme, according to the release.
In October 2022, Burke, who had since retired from the Navy, took a position with Next Jump for an annual salary of $500,000 and 100,000 stock options.
Burke is a trained electrical engineer and submariner who served in numerous postings around the world. He was chief of naval personnel, with responsibility for manpower, personnel, training, and education, when the events described in the indictment began.
Only one U.S. Navy admiral has ever been found guilty of committing a federal crime while on active duty; Rear Adm. Robert Gilbeau was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2017 for lying to federal agents about his part in the worst corruption scandal in Navy history, involving disgraced defense contractor Leonard “Fat Leonard” Francis.