Jury acquits 2 business executives of bribing Navy admiral for government contract

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal jury has acquitted two business executives of charges that they conspired to bribe a retired four-star U.S. Navy admiral, who is now serving a six-year prison sentence for his conviction on corruption charges.

An earlier trial for Next Jump co-CEOs Yongchul “Charlie” Kim and Meghan Messenger ended last year with a hung jury and a mistrial. Their retrial in Washington, D.C., ended Monday with a jury acquitting them of all charges, including conspiracy and bribery, court records show.

Prosecutors accused Kim and Messenger of bribing retired Adm. Robert P. Burke for a military contract in exchange for a lucrative postretirement job. Burke — once the second-highest uniformed officer in the Navy — was commanding its forces in Europe and Africa when he engaged in the alleged plot.

Prosecutors claimed Kim and Messenger agreed to pay Burke a $500,000 salary with stock options projected to be worth millions of dollars. In exchange, they alleged, Burke ordered his staff to give a contract to Next Jump and promoted the company’s product to other senior Navy commanders.

In 2018, Next Jump had a multimillion-dollar Navy contract to provide workforce training to an office under Burke’s command. But the Navy terminated the “poorly received” pilot program after approximately one year, prosecutors said.

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After a separate trial last year, a jury convicted Burke on four counts, including conspiracy and accepting a bribe. Burke, 64, is serving his prison sentence at a federal prison in West Virginia and is due to be released in November 2029, according to Bureau of Prisons records.

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Burke joined Next Jump in October 2022 after retiring from the Navy. Reed Brodsky, one of Messenger’s attorneys, has argued that there was no link between Burke’s job offer and the contract. Brodsky said the acquittals are “a testament to the power of truth and the integrity of the American justice system.”

“We are grateful to the jury for their careful, conscientious deliberations, and to all who stood by Meghan during this difficult chapter,” the defense attorney said in a statement.