Jury acquits Next Jump executives accused of bribing Adm. Robert Burke

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A federal jury acquitted Next Jump co-CEOs Yongchul “Charlie” Kim and Meghan Messenger of all charges tied to allegations that they bribed retired U.S. Navy Adm. Robert P. Burke, according to court records. The verdict followed a retrial in Washington, D.C., after an earlier trial ended in a hung jury and a mistrial.

Prosecutors had accused Kim and Messenger of conspiring to bribe Burke, a retired four-star admiral who had been commanding Navy forces in Europe and Africa when the alleged scheme was underway. Burke later became the focus of a separate criminal case in which jurors convicted him on corruption charges.

The government said Kim and Messenger agreed to pay Burke a $500,000 salary, along with stock options that prosecutors said could be worth millions. In return, prosecutors alleged that Burke ordered his staff to award a contract to Next Jump and promoted the company’s product to other senior Navy commanders.

The contract at the center of the case involved Next Jump’s workforce training work under Burke’s command in 2018, where the Navy had awarded the company a multimillion-dollar deal. Prosecutors said the Navy later terminated the “poorly received” pilot program after about one year.

Kim and Messenger had been tried once before. Their earlier trial ended last year with jurors deadlocked, leading to a mistrial, before the retrial in Washington, D.C., concluded with a full acquittal.

Burke, 64, is serving a prison sentence for his convictions in that earlier, separate case. According to Bureau of Prisons records, he is due to be released in November 2029.

After the acquittal, Messenger’s attorney Reed Brodsky said there was no link between Burke’s job offer and the contract. Kim’s attorney William Burck said the verdict showed that “justice prevailed,” adding that the jury did not believe Kim and Messenger bribed anyone. Brodsky also described the result as a “testament to the power of truth and the integrity of the American justice system,” and defense attorneys thanked jurors for their deliberations.