{"id":85256,"date":"2023-07-10T00:56:49","date_gmt":"2023-07-10T04:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/?p=85256"},"modified":"2023-07-10T00:56:49","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T04:56:49","slug":"sec-charges-former-army-financial-counselor-who-defrauded-gold-star-family-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/07\/2023\/sec-charges-former-army-financial-counselor-who-defrauded-gold-star-family-members.html","title":{"rendered":"SEC Charges Former Army Financial Counselor Who Defrauded Gold Star Family Members"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged former U.S. Army financial counselor <strong>Caz L. Craffy <\/strong>for defrauding Gold Star family members and others by engaging in unauthorized trading\u2014including of life insurance and family survivor benefits they received following the death of an active duty service member\u2014and for recommending excessive trades and higher risk strategies that did not match customers\u2019 investment profiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the SEC\u2019s complaint, Craffy, of Colts Neck, New Jersey, was permitted to provide general financial education to service members\u2019 families through his job as a U.S. Army financial counselor. However, as alleged, between May 2018 and November 2022, Craffy used his position and access to manipulate grieving family members by directing them to transfer their benefits into brokerage accounts he managed outside of his official duties with the U.S. Army. Once the funds were deposited, Craffy engaged in unauthorized trading and trading that did not match his customers\u2019 risk profiles and investment objectives and exposed them to higher risks of loss from excessive trading, concentration and lack of diversification. In that 54-month span, Craffy\u2019s customers incurred more than <strong>$1.64 million<\/strong> in commissions and fees, most of which Craffy pocketed, while the accounts he managed suffered approximately <strong>$1.79 million<\/strong> in realized losses and faced additional unrealized losses of approximately <strong>$1.8<\/strong> <strong>million.<\/strong> In one particularly egregious offense, Craffy misappropriated $50,000 from the IRA account of a minor child whose parent had died on active duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c<strong>Rather than help Gold Star families best use their survivor benefits, we allege that Mr. Craffy manipulated them to profit from their grief,\u201d said Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC\u2019s Enforcement Division. \u201cWe owe an incredible debt of gratitude to these families who have sacrificed so much in service to our country. I am grateful to the SEC staff for holding Mr. Craffy accountable for his shameless conduct and delivering some measure of justice to these incredible families.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs our complaint alleges, Craffy repeatedly defrauded families whose loved ones gave the ultimate sacrifice to their country,\u201d said Antonia M. Apps, Regional Director of the SEC\u2019s New York Regional Office. \u201cIn so doing, he violated not only the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, but the Commission\u2019s Regulation Best Interest as well.&nbsp; The SEC will aggressively use all tools at its disposal to pursue and hold accountable bad actors who victimize investors whether in the military or otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The SEC\u2019s complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, charges Craffy with violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws and Regulation Best Interest. The SEC is seeking permanent injunctions, disgorgement of allegedly ill-gotten gains, plus interest, and civil penalties.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged former U.S. Army financial counselor Caz L. Craffy for defrauding Gold Star family members and others by engaging in unauthorized trading\u2014including of life insurance and family survivor benefits they received following the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3,16048,16047],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hedgeco-networks-press-releases","category-hedgeco-news","category-hedgecovest-news","category-insider-trading-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85257,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85256\/revisions\/85257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}