Retired admiral Robert P. Burke sentenced to prison after bribery conviction

A retired four-star admiral was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison after he was convicted in a corruption case for steering lucrative government contracts to a government vendor in exchange for a high-paying job.

A federal jury in the District of Columbia had found Robert P. Burke guilty on May 19 of conspiring to commit bribery, performing acts affecting a personal financial interest, and concealing material facts from the United States. 

A separate trial for his co-defendants — Next Jump co-CEOs Yongchul Kim and Meghan Messenger — ended with a hung jury and a mistrial.

Burke was commander of U.S. Navy forces in Europe and Africa from 2020 to 2022, when he met with the Next Jump officials in Washington. Federal prosecutors said Mr. Kim and Ms. Messenger offered him a post-retirement job with the company that included a $500,000 salary and stock options projected to be worth millions.

In exchange, he ordered his staff to hire NextJump to provide training materials and instructions to his command for more than $350,000. They also agreed that Burke would use his official position to influence other Navy officers to award further contracts to the company, estimated to be worth “triple-digit millions.”

“To conceal his scheme, Burke made several false and misleading statements to the Navy, including by falsely implying that [Next Jump’s] employee discussions with Burke only began months after the contract was awarded and omitting the truth on his required government ethics disclosure form,” federal prosecutors said following his conviction.

However, Burke was unable to convince another senior Navy admiral to follow his example and award contracts to NextJump, Justice Department officials said.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Tuesday that integrity, not cash, is the currency of public service.

“Admiral Burke rose to the pinnacle of the U.S. Navy, entrusted with leadership and honor. But instead of leading by example, he cashed in that rust, turning four stars into dollar signs and trading duty for a corporate payday,” Ms. Pirro said in a statement. “Today’s sentence sends a clear message: if you sell your honor and trade your influence, you’ll pay the price, in prison time.”