Retired 4-star Navy admiral sentenced to 6 years in prison after accepting job for awarding contract

Retired four-star Navy Adm. Robert Burke has been sentenced to six years in prison after being found guilty of bribery for awarding a tech firm a government contract in exchange for a job after retiring.

Burke, 63, was sentenced on Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden in Washington, D.C., The Associated Press reported.

The retired admiral, who was once the second-highest uniformed officer in the Navy, was found guilty by a federal jury in May on charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, performing acts affecting a personal financial interest, and concealing material facts from the U.S.

Burke, who was the Navy vice chief of naval operations from June 2019 to June 2020, is the most senior member in U.S. military history to be found guilty of committing a federal crime while on active-duty service.

“This was blatantly unlawful, as you well knew,” the judge told Burke. “But you did it anyway.”

McFadden told Burke that he betrayed the public’s trust and his oath of office.

“This is a sad day and a sad chapter in the U.S. Navy,” the judge said.

Prosecutors had requested a 10-year prison sentence for Burke, saying he abused his position to enrich himself at the Navy’s expense.

Burke’s lawyers said they will appeal his convictions. The legal team cited his “lifetime of extraordinary public service” in asking the judge to spare Burke from a prison sentence.

“This is not a case of a career criminal,” the attorneys wrote. “It is the case of a single, tragic, and aberrant chapter at the very end of a life defined by honor, courage, and commitment.”

Burke, of Coconut Creek, Fla., was charged with federal crimes by a grand jury in May 2024, along with the co-CEOs of the technology services firm, Next Jump, which he joined after retiring from the military, according to a Justice Department announcement on the jury's decision. 

Co-CEOs Yongchul “Charlie” Kim and Meghan Messenger, both of New York, were Burke's two co-defendants. Their separate trial ended with a hung jury and a mistrial on Thursday.

Kim and Messenger allegedly provided a workforce training pilot program to a small component of the Navy from August 2018 through July 2019. Burke was chief of naval personnel from 2016 to June 2019. The Navy terminated a contract with Next Jump in late 2019 and directed it not to contact Burke.

The two co-defendants allegedly met with Burke in Washington, D.C., in summer 2021, when he was in command of U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa and Allied Joint Forces Command, to reestablish Next Jump's business relationship with the Navy. 

Kim and Messenger allegedly agreed at the meeting that Burke would use his position to steer a contract to Next Jump in exchange for a future job at the company. They also allegedly agreed that he would influence other naval officers to award another contract to Next Jump to train a large portion of the Navy.

Burke ordered his staff in Dec. 2021 to award a $355,000 contract to Next Jump to train personnel under his command in Italy and Spain, which the company performed in Jan. 2022.

In Oct. 2022, after retiring in the summer, Burke began working at Next Jump at an annual starting salary of $500,000 and a grant of 100,000 stock options.