Admittedly; I'm a little bias, because I guess the work he was doing with these contractors was a program that was supposed to do something about at-sea collisions; specifically by addressing certain negative aspects of Navy culture- I'm bias because I was in an at-sea collision; and there were 6 collisions within a year of me getting out; so lets say we might share a similar passion. Sailors died for no reason, and it pisses me off- not to mention the costs and reduction in capability caused by that many collisions... it's a stupid problem to have and I think he was trying to keep doing something about it in retirement.
The evidence of the case shared by the news is underwhelming to me; but from what I understand the contract that he awarded the contractors did not even come close to offsetting his salary/stake in the company; IOW, they lost money by taking him on. It's just really weird. At least for a "bribe".
^^^ Moreover, the news sources compared this 'scandal' to the "Fat Leonard" corruption scandal; which... this is NOT EVEN CLOSE to a scumbag setting up officers which drugs and hookers... that's not in the same ball-park or even in the same universe.
I guess what I am getting at is... this investigation started during the Biden administration; and I think the DS would be interested in stopping him from doing what he was doing a lot more than caring about bribes or corruption.
Ya... I do see your point...
I do agree, watching how the Marine Corps is addressing the DOGE SECDEF guidance, I concede is a bit concerning... I would be going about it in a completely different way.... They seem to be taking a 'glass half empty' perspective, vs I conducted a comprehensive mission analysis and I would have taken a much more optimistic 'glass is half full' approach for optimizing opportunities for efficiencies across the board...
That being said - I would not be surprised - that this case could be a simple example of Admiral Burke being caught in the cross heirs by the wrong bean counters at the wrong time... Where what was really happening was his inadvertent mis-step trying to straddle any potential conflict of interest from his active duty contacts and his future post retirement negotiations for post retirement opportunities...
Unfortunately, I've seen a lot of grey area during these transition periods over the years...
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