U.S. Army Financial Counselor Charged with Defrauding Gold Star Families (DOJ Release)
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-army-financial-counselor-charged-defrauding-gold-star-families

In the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, an Indictment was filed charging former U.S. Army financial counselor Caz Craffy a/k/a "Carz Craffey"
https://www.justice.gov/media/1304436/dl?inline with six counts of wire fraud, one count of securities fraud,  one count of false statement on loan application, one count of acts affecting personal financial interest, one count of false statements. As alleged in part in the DOJ Release:

When a member of the Armed Services dies during active duty, his or her surviving beneficiary, now a member of a Gold Star family, is entitled to a $100,000 death gratuity and the soldier’s life insurance of up to $400,000. These payments are disbursed to the beneficiary in a matter of weeks or months following the servicemember’s death. To assist the beneficiaries in this time of need, the military provides a number of services to the servicemember’s family, including the assistance of a financial counselor.

From November 2017 to January 2023, Craffy was a civilian employee of the U.S. Army, working as a financial counselor with the Casualty Assistance Office. He was also a major in the U.S. Army Reserves, where he has been enlisted since 2003. Craffy was responsible for providing general financial education to the surviving beneficiaries. He was prohibited from offering any personal opinions regarding the surviving beneficiary’s benefits decisions. Craffy was not permitted to participate personally in any government matter in which he had an outside financial interest. However, without telling the Army, Craffy simultaneously maintained outside employment with two separate financial investment firms.

Craffy used his position as an Army financial counselor to identify and target Gold Star families and other military families. He encouraged the Gold Star families to invest their survivor benefits in investment accounts that he managed in his outside, private employment. Based upon Craffy’s false representations and omissions, the vast majority of the Gold Star families mistakenly believed that Craffy’s management of their money was done on behalf of and with the Army’s authorization.

From May 2018 to November 2022, Craffy obtained more than $9.9 million from Gold Star families to invest in accounts managed by Craffy in his private capacity. Once in control of this money, Craffy repeatedly executed trades, often without the family’s authorization. These unauthorized trades earned Craffy high commissions. During the timeframe of the alleged scheme, the Gold Star family accounts had lost more than $3.4 million, while Craffy personally earned more than $1.4 million in commissions, drawn from the family accounts.

SEC Charges Former Army Financial Counselor Who Defrauded Gold Star Family Members (SEC Release)
https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-127
In the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, the SEC filed a Complaint charging former U.S. Army financial counselor Caz L. Craffy with violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws and Regulation Best Interest
https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/complaints/2023/comp-pr2023-127.pdf. As alleged in part in the SEC Complaint, Craffy:

was permitted to provide general financial education to service members’ 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’ 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’s customers incurred more than $1.64 million in commissions and fees, most of which Craffy pocketed, while the accounts he managed suffered approximately $1.79 million in realized losses and faced additional unrealized losses of approximately $1.8 million. In one particularly egregious offense, Craffy misappropriated $50,000 from the IRA account of a minor child whose parent had died on active duty.