A retired four-star admiral who used his position in the Navy to attempt to direct millions of dollars in military contracts to a company in exchange for a lucrative job in retirement was sentenced on Tuesday to six years in prison, federal prosecutors said.
The former admiral, Robert P. Burke, 63, of Coconut Creek, Fla., who was once the Navy’s second-highest-ranking officer, ordered his staff to award a $355,000 contract to Next Jump, a New York-based technology and work force training company, prosecutors for the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said. He also tried to persuade another senior admiral to do the same, prosecutors said. In exchange, Next Jump offered Admiral Burke a position with a yearly base salary of $500,000 and a grant of 100,000 stock options for when he retired, according to prosecutors.
Admiral Burke and the two co-chief executives of Next Jump, Yongchul Kim and Meghan Messenger, were arrested in May 2024. Admiral Burke was convicted this year on four felony counts that included bribery and conspiracy, making him one of the highest-ranking former U.S. military officers to have been convicted of a crime committed while serving in a leadership role.
According to prosecutors, from August 2018 through July 2019, Next Jump provided a work force training pilot program to a small part of the Navy that was under Admiral Burke’s command at the time. But the Navy terminated its contract with Next Jump in late 2019 and directed it not to contact Admiral Burke.
In July 2021, Mr. Kim and Ms. Messenger met with Admiral Burke in Washington, D.C., where they offered him the job and stock options in exchange for a government contract. According to prosecutors, the three also agreed that Admiral Burke would push other Navy officials to award another training contract to Next Jump estimated to be in the “triple digit millions.”
Admiral Burke ordered his staff in December 2021 to award a $355,000 contract to Next Jump to train personnel under his command in Italy and Spain, prosecutors said, which was completed in January 2022. In their sentencing memo, prosecutors said the training was “widely disparaged,” receiving mostly negative reviews.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The post Retired Admiral Is Sentenced to 6 Years in Prison for Bribery appeared first on New York Times.
