By Stephen Appezzato
COLTS NECK – A local financial advisor was charged with multiple counts of wire and securities fraud for deceiving Gold Star families and defrauding them of survivor bonuses.
According to the indictment, Caz Craffy, a former civilian contractor and financial counselor for the U.S. Army who operated Monmouth Capital Management on the side, used his military position to target families of U.S. ser vice members who died while serving in conflict areas.
When service members die on active duty, their surviving beneficiaries are entitled to a death gratuity and the soldier’s life insurance. The gratuity is $100,000, and the life insurance payment can be upward of $400,000.
As an Army financial counselor, the Colts Neck resident was trusted to provide general financial education to surviving beneficiaries. He was prohibited from offering personal insight and recommendations on Gold Star families’ financial planning or participating in any government matter where he had a personal financial interest.
According to a press briefing by U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger, Craffy used his position as a civilian Army counselor to target Gold Star families, encouraging them to invest their survivor bonuses in investment accounts under his management. Reportedly, the victims of Craffy’s scheme believed their money was being managed through the military, not Monmouth Capital Management, Craffy’s second Florida-based firm, or his personal accounts.
“When government hands over control to this kind of relationship building, it’s problematic and it opens the door for things like this to happen,” said former state Sen. Nicholas Asselta, a Gold Star family member who serves on the board of the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Foundation. Asselta’s older brother Charles was killed in action in Saigon in March 1968. As reparation, Asselta’s family was given just $5,000.
“I’m not quite sure I would have the confidence in the military to provide me a financial adviser or my family and I think that’s best left to the private sector,” said Asselta.
According to court documents, from 2018 to 2022, Craffy wrested over $9.9 million from Gold Star families, investing the funds in his private accounts. Craffy often executed trades without the family members’ consent. During this period, Craffy pocketed over $1.4 million through high commissions, while the victims lost over $3.4 million.
“He won no matter how the trades came out – heads or tails – because he got paid either way,” explained Sellinger. Not only did Craffy target families he worked with through his Army job, but he also used a military database to identify other Gold Star families to approach.
Asselta described the matter as “very disturbing.”
In February, The Washington Post uncovered several complaints from Craffy’s victims, prompting an investigation by the Department of the Army Criminal Investigations Division and spurring federal lawmakers to introduce legislation that would improve screening of military financial counselors.
Craffy made his initial appearance in federal court in Trenton July 7. Alongside criminal charges, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint against Craffy.
“It’s a sad, sad thing when people prey on the vulnerable,” said Asselta. “Whether it’s military Gold Star families, whether it’s senior citizens, or whether it’s children, I think they’re the three worst things that can happen in our society of those three particular groups, getting victimized by people like this,” he said.
The defendant is considered innocent unless and until proven guilty.
The article originally appeared in the July 13 – 19, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
