Retired Adm. Robert P. Burke, once the Navy’s second-highest-ranking officer, was convicted Monday on bribery and related charges, marking the first time in history that a four-star U.S. military officer has been found guilty of committing a federal crime while on active duty.
Burke, 63, of Coconut Creek, Fla., was found guilty by a Washington jury after a five-day trial and three days of deliberation. Prosecutors said he steered a Navy training contract in 2021 to a New York-based company, Next Jump, in exchange for a $500,000-per-year job he was to begin after his retirement in 2022.
"This is the man who issued the standards of conduct for the entire Navy," Assistant U.S. Attorney Trevor C. Wilmot told jurors during closing arguments. Quoting Burke’s own words from 2020, Wilmot added, "In May 2020 what he said about ethics was: We have to get it right every time. We’ve got to be better than these standards. And a single act or omission can destroy a lifetime of achievement," the Washington Post reports.
Burke was convicted of bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, acts affecting a personal financial interest, and concealing material facts - charges that carry a combined maximum of 50 years in prison, though legal experts expect far lower penalties given his status as a first-time offender. Sentencing is scheduled for August.
The jury heard excerpts of a recorded October 2023 interview with Navy investigators in which Burke acknowledged impropriety. "I was allowing myself to be influenced in ways that were inappropriate," he said. "I put myself in positions that allowed [Next Jump] to influence me, and I didn’t fully disclose everything."
Burke, who served as chief of naval personnel from 2016 to 2019 and then as vice chief of naval operations through 2020, held top leadership roles during a turbulent era for the Navy. His tenure overlapped with the aftermath of the "Fat Leonard" scandal, which exposed widespread bribery involving Navy officers and defense contractors, as well as deadly 2017 ship collisions that killed 17 sailors and spurred renewed scrutiny over Navy readiness and ethics.
Prosecutors argued that Burke’s conduct ran counter to the leadership principles he had long championed. According to government evidence, after a July 2021 lunch at Belga Café in Washington, Burke agreed to help Next Jump secure contracts with the Navy and promote its services in the U.S. and U.K. militaries in exchange for a future executive position.
The contract - valued at $355,000, with Next Jump receiving about $250,000 as a subcontractor - funded leadership training for sailors in Spain and Italy. Testimony showed Burke overrode objections from subordinates to fast-track the pilot program, which was poorly reviewed and not renewed.
Burke joined Next Jump after his retirement, working there for four months and receiving a prorated salary of approximately $167,000 before parting ways. Prosecutors highlighted a message from co-CEO Meghan Messenger to co-CEO Charlie Kim after Burke’s hiring: "no contract no job."
Defense attorney Timothy C. Parlatore said Burke never agreed to a "quid pro quo" and had followed required ethics reviews before accepting the post-retirement job. He called the verdict "very surprising and disappointing," criticizing what he described as the prosecution’s narrow presentation of evidence.
"The government was trying to present a very narrow sliver of the evidence to the jury," Parlatore said, adding that key witnesses, including a Pentagon investigator and a former romantic partner of Burke’s, were excluded from testimony.
Burke’s defense sought to cast doubt on the credibility of both individuals. The former Pentagon official, described by the defense as a "jilted ex-lover," had initiated an inspector general investigation that later became criminal. She was also found in a separate 2013 Virginia court ruling to have made false allegations during her divorce.
The lead Defense Criminal Investigative Service agent on the case, Cordell "Trey" DeLaPena, has also come under scrutiny.
That agent, Cordell “Trey” DeLaPena, came under fire in a Fat Leonard-related case in which felony charges were dropped against four former Navy officers because of prosecutorial misconduct. The Justice Department also retreated from initial allegations that Rafaraci led a wider multimillion-dollar fraud scheme in the global industry that provides services to navy ships in ports overseas, which Parlatore alleged during Burke’s trial came after DeLaPena submitted a false affidavit in Rafaraci’s case in Washington.
Rafaraci’s attorney has said that investigators were headhunting for the next Fat Leonard scandal, an investigation that rocked the Navy for years after 2013 when Malaysian defense contractor Leonard Glenn Francis pleaded guilty to bribing scores of Navy officials so he could overcharge the Navy for port services in Asia. -WaPo
Meanwhile, Kim and Messenger - Next Jump’s co-CEOs - are scheduled to go on trial in August. Both have pleaded not guilty and questioned the logic of offering Burke a lucrative salary for a relatively small training contract. "I expect the evidence will show that Burke and others at the Navy misled Charlie and Meghan," said Reed Brodsky, an attorney for Next Jump, adding, "I think it’ll be embarrassing for the Navy."