Bribery Prosecution of 4-Star Admiral Opens Window into Navy Cultural Issues, Defendants Say
Military.com | By Konstantin Toropin
Published April 22, 2025 at 5:33pm ET
In the waning days of the Biden administration, the Justice Department undertook a rare prosecution of a recently retired four-star Navy admiral, alleging he was bribed with a job in exchange for steering lucrative contracts to a company charged with training top leaders.
The case conjures comparisons to the Fat Leonard scandal -- the sprawling investigations and prosecutions that snared U.S. naval officers as part of a civilian defense contractor's decade-long bribery scheme. Now, the new ongoing corruption prosecution, which is much more limited in scale and largely rests on a single, problematic witness, may be faltering.
Two corporate executives who are on trial and are alleged to have bribed retired Adm. Robert Burke recently spoke exclusively with Military.com. As they look back on Burke, their relationship with the Navy and the trial, they say the case reminds them of Fat Leonard but also of a deadly tragedy -- the collisions of two destroyers in the Pacific nearly a decade ago -- and how little the Navy seems to have learned from either.
Charlie Kim and Meghan Messenger run a company called Next Jump that offers training and coaching programs to leaders and executives at major companies and some government agencies.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/04/22/admirals-bribery-case-defendants-say-deeper-navy-cultural-problems-are-display.html
