Former US Army Counselor Who Stole Millions from Gold Star Families Sentenced to Prison

A New Jersey financial counselor and U.S. Army reservist who admitted to defrauding Gold Star families that received death benefits after their family members died serving in the military has been sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison.

Caz Craffy also will be subject to three years of supervised release and was ordered to forfeit $1.4 million on top of his 12-year, seven-month sentence, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Wednesday.

Also known as "Carz Craffey," the 42-year-old Colts Neck resident was indicted in June 2023 after investigators accused him of targeting families of deceased veterans and collecting millions in commissions on trades in financial securities without the approval of his clients.

Craffy was a major in the U.S. Army reserves, having been enlisted since 2003, and also worked as a civilian employee of the U.S. Army at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst from November 2017 through January 2023 as a financial counselor, authorities said.

Gold Star families, families of military veterans who died while on active duty, are entitled to $100,000 plus up to $400,000 in service member life insurance, officials said.

As a civilian financial counselor, Craffy was responsible for offering general financial education to families receiving death benefits and was prohibited from providing personal opinions on what to do with those benefits, officials said.

Craffy acknowledged that he was prohibited from personally participating in any government matter in which he had an outside financial interest, yet he maintained outside employment with two financial firms from Point Pleasant Beach and Boca Raton, Florida, authorities said.

The financial firms paid commissions to Craffy based on the size and volume of trades, not on whether they earned any money, and were paid out of the accounts on whose behalf the trades were made, prosecutors said in the indictment.

Craffy admitted he encouraged families to invest benefits in accounts he managed in his outside, private employment, officials said.

Between May 2018 and November 2022, Craffy collected more than $9.9 million from Gold Star families to invest through accounts he managed in his private capacity and made trades without prior consent --which violated both financial firms' policies, officials said.

Craffy earned more than $1.4 million in commissions for the unauthorized trades, authorities said, which resulted in losses totaling more than $3.7 million.

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