Former vice chief of naval operations arrested on corruption and conspiracy charges

Updated: 4:05 p.m. ET.

A former US Navy vice chief of naval operations has been arrested for accepting bribes to award work to a company while serving as commander of naval forces in Europe and Africa, reports said Friday. Justice Department officials in a statement.

Robert Burke, 62, of Coconut Creek, Fla., and two business executives, Yongchul “Charlie” Kim and Meghan Messenger of New York, were each charged with bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery. -wine, according to an indictment unsealed Friday.

“Burke is also accused of committing acts affecting personal financial interest and concealing material facts from the United States. If convicted, Burke faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, and Kim and Messenger each face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison,” the statement said.

A former submariner, Burke served as the 40th vice chief of naval operations from June 2019 to June 2020, then as commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa and Allied Joint Forces Command.

DOJ officials said Kim and Messenger are co-CEOs of a defense contractor they identified as “Company A.” A website for services company NextJump identifies Charlie Kim and Meghan Messenger as co-CEOs.

From 2018 to 2019, Company A “provided a pilot workforce training program to a small component of the Navy,” which terminated the contract in late 2019 and directed company officials not to not contact Burke, the statement said.

“Despite instructions from the Navy, Kim and Messenger then reportedly met with Burke in Washington, D.C., in July 2021 in an effort to reestablish Company A's business relationship with the Navy,” the statement said. “At the meeting, the defendants allegedly agreed that Burke would use his position as a Navy admiral to enter into a sole-source contract with Company A in exchange for future employment with the company. They further reportedly agreed that Burke would use his official position to influence other Navy officers to award another contract to Company A to train a large portion of the Navy, worth Kim reportedly estimated at “three-digit millions.”

Several months later, Burke — who was then commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa and Allied Joint Forces Command — reportedly ordered his Navy staff to award a $355,000 contract to the company to train the personnel under Burke's command in Italy and Spain, the statement said.

“Company A conducted the training in January 2022. Subsequently, Burke allegedly promoted Company A in an unsuccessful attempt to convince a senior Navy admiral to award another contract to Company A. To cover up the scheme, Burke allegedly made several false and misleading statements to the Navy, including creating the false appearance that Burke played no role in awarding the contract and falsely implying that Company A's employment discussions with Burke did not. began months after the contract was awarded,” the statement said.

“In October 2022, Burke began working at Company A with an annual starting salary of $500,000 and a grant of 100,000 stock options. »

The announcement came on the same day as the court appearance of Leonard Glenn Francis, who was convicted in 2015 of bribing several Navy officers to obtain lucrative contracts to maintain warships in foreign ports.

“The idea that there is a four-star admiral in charge of accepting bribes is pretty mind-blowing,” said Craig Whitlock, author of Fat Leonard: How One Man Bribed, Swindled, and Seduced the U.S. Navy. “But the fact that this happened after the Fat Leonard investigation really makes us wonder whether senior Navy leaders have taken the lessons of this scandal to heart.”

“At one point there were 91 admirals under investigation or questioning in the Fat Leonard affair. This is something the Navy has never acknowledged. And yet only one of them went to prison. So for the vast majority of them, you know, there was no accountability,” Whitlock said. “One has to wonder whether this lack of accountability – or the Navy's reluctance to truly learn from the experience or assess the broader damage to its leaders – is one of the reasons why this kind of thing breeds.”

The Navy is working with the Justice Department on the matter, its chief spokesman said.

“The Department of the Navy has fully cooperated with this investigation from the outset. We take this matter very seriously and will continue to cooperate with the Department of Justice. As this is an ongoing legal matter, we refer you to the DOJ for any further information regarding this matter,” Rear Admiral Ryan Perry said in a statement.

Defense One has contacted Burke and NextJump for comment.

Audrey Decker and Ross Wilkers contributed to this report.