Retired Navy Admiral Arrested on Bribery Allegations

A retired four-star admiral was arrested Friday on suspicion of participating in a bribery scheme while commanding U.S. naval forces in Europe, Russia and most of Africa, the Justice Department said.

According to federal prosecutors, Robert P. Burke, 62, of Coconut Creek, Florida, who was once the second-highest ranking officer in the Navy, brokered a government contract with a company in exchange for a job with the company that paid an annual base salary of $500,000 and was awarded 100,000 stock options.

The company’s two co-directors, Yongchul Kim (50), known as Charlie, and Meghan Messenger (47), both of New York, were also arrested and charged with involvement in the plot, the Justice Department said.

The company, which is not named in federal court documents, ran a pilot workforce training program for a small portion of the Navy from August 2018 to July 2019, until the Navy terminated the contract in late 2019 and instructed the company not to have any contact with Admiral Burke, the Justice Department said.

Despite the Navy’s instructions, Mr. Kim and Ms. Messenger met with Admiral Burke in Washington in July 2021 and proposed transferring a labor training contract back to the company, prosecutors say in the indictment.

The executives also suggested that Admiral Burke stay with the Navy for six more months. They used his position to persuade other senior officers to give the company a larger training contract, prosecutors said. Mr. Kim estimated the value of that contract to be in the “hundreds of millions,” prosecutors said.

In return, Admiral Burke was offered a position with stock options at the company after he left the Navy, which he “agreed to accept,” the indictment says. He began working for the company in October 2022, shortly after leaving the Navy that same year, federal prosecutors said.

Admiral Burke has been charged with conspiracy to commit bribery, corruption, engaging in acts detrimental to personal financial interests, and concealing material facts from the United States. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison.

Mr Kim and Ms Messenger have each been charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and bribery and face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

“The law does not provide any exceptions for admirals or CEOs,” Matthew M. Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said in a statement Friday. “Those who pay and accept bribes must be held accountable.”

As part of the conspiracy, prosecutors said, in December 2021, Admiral Burke ordered his staff to award the company a $355,000 contract to train personnel under his command in Italy and Spain. After the company completed the training in January 2022, Admiral Burke tried to persuade another admiral to award the company a larger training contract, prosecutors said.

He also made “false and misleading” statements to the Navy to conceal his role in promoting the contract, prosecutors said. And Admiral Burke falsely suggested that his employment discussions with the company did not begin until months after the contract was awarded, prosecutors said.

Timothy C. Parlatore, Admiral Burke’s attorney, said his client intends to contest the allegations.

“We intend to go to trial and expect an acquittal,” Mr. Parlatore said in an interview on Friday. “They are trying to make it look like there was a quid pro quo when there isn’t. Admiral Burke never had serious discussions with anyone about his employment until the appropriate time and then disclosed it. They are trying to make it look like he had an employment contract long before that.”

Mr. Parlatore said that Admiral Burke “believed in the product this company was offering and he wanted to run a short pilot program, but the contract was ultimately cut short at Admiral Burke’s direction due to operational constraints.”

Mr Parlatore confirmed that Admiral Burke worked for the company after his retirement, but said he left after a few months. “It turned out it wasn’t a very good fit,” he said. “There was personal friction.”

A lawyer for Ms. Messenger said he had no immediate comment. It was not immediately clear who is representing Mr. Kim.

A Navy spokesman, Rear Admiral Ryan M. Perry, said in a statement that the Navy had fully cooperated with the investigation. “We take this matter very seriously and will continue to work with the Department of Justice,” Admiral Perry said.

Admiral Burke, who joined the Navy in 1982, served as a submarine commander before rising to become Vice Chief of Naval Operations, the Navy’s second-highest-ranking officer, from June 2019 to June 2020. From July 2020 until his retirement in August 2022, he served as Commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa, with thousands of civilian and military personnel under his leadership.