Last year, I wrote about four-star Navy admiral Robert Burke. He was a bad guy. A very bad guy.

Admiral Robert Burke rose to the highest rank possible in the 21st century US Navy: 4 stars. When Burke retired in 2022 after 39 years in the Navy, he was just 62. His base pay on retirement was about $187,000. His retirement pay would have been 87 percent of that. Not Elon Musk money, but Burke had the benefit of living a life of command that, as the Navy’s second-highest ranking officer, had other perks like significant housing stipends and other benefits. The DOJ alleges that, for Burke, it also meant a massive bribe in the form of private employment for procuring Navy contracts.

I can remove the “alleged.” On Wednesday, the 62-year-old former admiral learned that he will spend the next six years in a federal penitentiary.  

A jury found Admiral Robert P. Burke (USN-Ret.) from Coconut Creek, Fla., guilty of conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery, performing acts affecting a personal financial interest, and concealing material facts from the United States. 

Burke will have to serve six years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He will also have to pay $322,850 in restitution and $86,748.08 in forfeiture, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the District of Columbia. 

“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 trust — turning four stars into dollar signs and trading duty for a corporate payday. Today’s sentence sends a clear message: if you sell your honor and trade your influence, you’ll pay the price — in prison time.”

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro 

In 2021, shortly before Burke retired, and one year short of 40 years in “service,” he was setting up his civilian “retirement” plan. He was moving over to Jump Start in 2022 at a salary of $500,000 per year. Burke was attempting to influence other Navy personnel before he left the Navy. But it started to unravel. Jump Start’s employees were informed by the Navy Department that Jump Start needed to stop all communication with Burke. But Jump Start’s two “co-CEOs,” at the time, Meghan Messenger and Youngchul “Charlie” Kim, apparently continued to contact Burke. They assumed that they had Burke in their pocket. Burke, they thought, would be their conduit to landing future Navy contracts. The two met with Burke in July of 2021.  

According to the Department of Justice:  

At the meeting, the charged defendants allegedly agreed that Burke would use his position as a Navy Admiral to steer a sole-source contract to [Jump Start] in exchange for future employment at the company. They allegedly further agreed that Burke would use his official position to influence other Navy officers to award another contract to [Jump Start] to train a large portion of the Navy with a value Kim allegedly estimated to be “triple-digit millions.”  

Burke was still in a command position in 2021. He directed his staff to award Jump Start a $355,000 contract to train Naval personnel in Italy and Spain. That contract lasted just two months, because his house of cards started to fall apart. A fellow admiral whom Burke tried to pressure wanted nothing of Burke’s scheme. Burke retired and moved to Jump Start. 

In 2022, he was delighted. So was Jump Start. 

We are delighted to welcome Bob Burke as a Senior Partner at Next Jump! He joins our team of world experts in growing Next Jump’s human performance community. Bob brings a wealth of leadership experience from serving four decades in the US Navy. pic.twitter.com/9d7jpzYATm

— Next Jump (@nextjump) October 17, 2022

The DOJ opened an investigation, and Burke, Kim, and Messenger were arrested in June of 2024.  

Kim and Messenger were also tried, but the jury was deadlocked. No doubt the DOJ will retry both or reach a plea agreement. The former CEOs claimed that they were lied to by Burke. 

Burke’s life is in shambles. Not only will he be spending the next nine years either in a prison cell or on supervised release because he committed his crimes while on active duty with Jump Start “contact” at the three-star rank, but he’s unlikely to retain two of his four stars. I asked my colleague Streiff, and he told me that general officers are technically on a “retainer” for recall. Because Burke is now a convict and a felon, he cannot be recalled to active duty. He’ll likely reach a “deal” for a reduced pension. In any event, he’s been ordered to pay over $400,000 in restitution and forfeiture. 

Burke disgraced the uniform. I don’t think six years in prison is enough. 

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