U.S. Army Financial Advisor Defrauds Soldier’s Grieving Family

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[00:00:01] Bob: This week on The Perfect Scam.

[00:00:04] Kim Ryan: My daughter called me up, she's like, "All I can say is the FBI is looking for you, Mom. What did you do?" I started opening up all the, the letters I was like, wait, what does this mean? It's 2 in the morning, and I'm sitting here going, what does this mean? What does this mean?

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[00:00:27] Bob: Welcome back to The Perfect Scam. I'm your host, Bob Sullivan. There is no pain like the pain a mother feels when she has to bury her child. Kim Ryan will tell you that today. Her son, Army Specialist Ryan Kettle, died while serving his country. So Kim joined a group no one wants to be a part of, Gold Star Families. There are no words of appreciation or gratitude or sympathy I can speak that begin to recognize the sacrifice such families have made and continue to make. All we can do is promise to never forget and to care for these families who have made the ultimate sacrifice. And that's why today's story is so important because amidst all the unimaginable grief Kim was suffering, well her vulnerability made her a target for a criminal. And this is a tale dripping with greed and cruelty and we dare not forget it. So let's meet Kim and let's take a moment to understand the very special relationship she had with her only son.

[00:01:35] Bob: Tell me about Ryan as a, as a little kid. What do, what do you remember about him?

[00:01:38] Kim Ryan: Oh my gosh, okay, so he was always my little man. His nickname was Ryan King - Mom's Little Man. Ryan has always been a sports enthusiast. Um, the more challenging the sport was, the more he was attracted to it. But his biggest, favorite all-time sport was hockey; ice hockey, roller hockey, street hockey, he was in leagues at the rinks. So he was a huge hockey fan and player. His, every year for my son's birthday, his birthday was December 23^rd. He would invite two or three friends, and he would go to a Devil's game in New Jersey.

[00:02:15] Bob: So my family did that also. We always, 'cause Christmas is when people were home, right? So usually they often would play the Islanders on, between Christmas and New Years.

[00:02:22] Kim Ryan: I can't remember who they played, 'cause I wasn't the one invited. His father always took him, but it's okay. I stayed home with my, my daughter, so we, we did our own thing.

[00:02:32] Bob: That was probably the only thing that Kim and Ryan didn't do together; however, unlike many boys, Ryan wanted Kim around all the time.

[00:02:43] Kim Ryan: My Ryan, because he was always my Ryan. My Ryan, he, he was a mama's boy. Through and through. He would tell, in front, in front of his buddies, like "Hey Mom, I told my buddies I'm a Mama's boy." He was proud of it. I was allowed, I was, I was allowed to drop him off at a friend's house with me in the car and not being down the road. I could go into the driveway. My daughter was opposite. You had to drive her down like five blocks away and be like, "Okay, Mom. See 'ya, bye." And he would give me a hug and kiss in front of his, his friends back when he was in school. But the best thing about my son and what keeps me going, and my memories, of course, as any mother would have, but my son would put me on his dirt bike and be like, "Mom, okay, you're going to ride this now." And I'd be like, "What?! What, what do I do?" So I hit a little Charlie Brown trick because I didn't know where the brake way, and he put me on his snowboard one year. And we were at the (inaudible) High School. He had gotten a snowboard for Christmas. And he goes, "Mom, you're going to try this." And again, I'm looking at him with my mouth wide open, "What?" "No, Mom, you're going to get on this and you're going to try this." It's like, oh my gosh. I go to the top of the hill. "All right, Ryan, I could do this." "Okay, Mom, bend your knees." Well I tumbled the whole way down.

[00:03:57] Bob: Oh my God.

[00:03:58] Kim Ryan: In front of everybody. (laughs) So he comes running down, I can hear him, "Mom, Mom, are you okay?" I get up. I'm laughing hysterical because to me it's just the funniest thing. You know someone in my age group going down the hill, you know, in circles like a Charlie Brown thing and stopping at the bottom of the hill with, with a snowboard on. I didn't know how to take it off. And I was looking at him, "Mom, are you okay?" He takes off the snowboard and I did a little bow and did like thank you, in front of everybody that was looking at me. And that was how I had to shake off going down the hill in front of everybody in circles. So you know, so yeah, so that's my stories are because of him are very good. You know he included me with everything. So he was, he was just a blast, my son, because he made sure to, I learned how to have fun through him. You know so it was, it was a blast being his mom for the short 23 years, yeah.

[00:04:55] Bob: Early on, Ryan expressed an interest in serving his country.

[00:04:59] Kim Ryan: Oh, that was a surprise. That would be in February of his graduating year. 2013 is when he went in, so it had to be February of 2013. He was telling me he wanted to go into the military. My kids knew from a very early stage that 12th grade high school is not the end of your education. You’ve got to, you, you got to go onto college. And he didn't want to do college. He's like, okay, so he was telling me in February, and as a mom, I did support him. I said, "Listen, you're a young man, you're old enough, and I will support whatever decision you make." It was his father and his uncle who were giving him a little bit of a rough time about going in. So he went in right after graduation from graduating from St. Anthony's and went in, I believe that it was that September 2013 he went in.

[00:05:48] Bob: Wow, and he was 18, 19?

[00:05:51] Kim Ryan: Uh, 18.

[00:05:53] Bob: Hmm.

[00:05:54] Bob: Ryan went away to Missouri for his basic training and right away he got a reputation for taking care of his buddies.

[00:06:03] Kim Ryan: Yes. He was the one that would get reprimanded because if he saw that you were having a difficult time with boot camp or anything, he was always the one that would be, they'd be like okay, Ryan, you know, Kettle, drop and give me 50 because he would take the attention off the person that was struggling at that time. So he was, he was always the one that had to drop and do 50 or whatever it was at the time. I would laugh, I would be like, "All right, Ryan, please you go through what you have to go through and they'll get through theirs." "No, Mom, don't you know, he needs, he needs them off of their back, off his back for a few minutes." So yeah.

[00:06:36] Bob: And, and he takes that from you.

[00:06:37] Kim Ryan: Yeah, he's, he's, he's um, we wear our, our heart on our sleeve. He's, he was a true mama's boy that way. He's, you know we, we went on our feelings in not what you were told you were supposed to do.

[00:06:49] Bob: After basic training, Ryan got a surprise assignment.

[00:06:54] Kim Ryan: He was stationed in Hawaii for the first three years. So when he came home for Christmas before he was going to Hawaii, he had a little goody bag for me to open for Christmas and I couldn't figure out why there was a Hawaiian lei, a Hawaiian doll, and I'm like, "What are you telling me?" And well I didn't, I just had no idea that he even knew where he was going. So he did the first three years in Hawaii and he excelled. He was the fastest moving soldier up to the ladder of success that they were calling him, Staff Sergeant Kettle. They called him Kettle.

[00:07:28] Bob: Hmm.

[00:07:29] Kim Ryan: Yeah.

[00:07:30] Bob: So three years in Hawaii, and then did he go somewhere else?

[00:07:33] Kim Ryan: And then he did the last two in Colorado. He was going to sign up again. I know the five years was up and he was going to reenlist and a lot of things hit the fan.

[00:07:47] Bob: When Ryan got to Colorado, Kim says, things got much harder for him. Friends noticed he seemed less happy, less talkative. And then the unimaginable happened, and Kim found out in a most unimaginable way. It started with a social media private message sent to her daughter.

[00:08:07] Kim Ryan: Somebody on Facebook Messenger messaged her asking if it was true that her brother was dead.

[00:08:15] Bob: Oh my God.

[00:08:16] Kim Ryan: She then in turn calls her father, I don't know until hours later because he's trying to get a hold of him. Nobody knows what's going on, all that we have is that you know that your brother's dead, on Facebook Messenger. When my ex-husband called me and I wouldn't let him hang up unless he told me what was going on, I just fell to the ground and screamed the bloodcurdling screams that a mother has. He just blurted it out over the cellphone and I just remember throwing my phone and screaming and falling.

[00:08:47] Bob: Eventually, the Army confirms the awful news. Ryan had taken his own life at age 23.

[00:08:56] Kim Ryan: They did come to us; the proper channels did approach us after we had found out. So it's, it was a very devastating way to find out how your child died. I mean I'm not sure if it's any better if anybody comes knocking on your door. So, of course after we were, we were informed, we were, we were just all, just mummified by what had happened. Nobody expected this, nobody anticipated this. He was always that happy-go-lucky kid. He was always that, just you know, I'm out here for a good time and it, if it's going to be work, I'm going to make sure I make, make it to the best of my ability where I'm having fun and learning at the same time. So we all congregated back to Long Island, well my daughter congregated back to Long Island and we buried my son on Father's Day, 2018, which was, I'm sure, very difficult for many a father that was in attendance there. Um, he passed June 9th which was four days after my birthday. But by the time the military had, I guess did what they had to do and returned his body to New York, it, it was not until Father's Day 2018 that we were able to bury him.

[00:10:04] Bob: The tragedy is impossible to process. There are so many details, so many tears. It's just so hard to make sense of everything. But one of the important details that Kim now needs to make sense out of is, what to do about Ryan's death benefit. She is the sole beneficiary; that's a surprise to her. And that is where the story we are telling today really begins. Grieving Gold Star Families receive life insurance and other payments from the military, and at that moment they are incredibly vulnerable. That money is supposed to last a lifetime to, in some small way, help with the financial shortfall created by the loss of a loved one. To help with financial decisions at such a vulnerable and important time, an advisor is offered by the military. In this case, Kim received $500,000 and the Army sent her to a financial counselor named Caz Craffy.

[00:11:02] Kim Ryan: So when I met with Caz, I wasn't even aware of a lot of things. I was in shock, of course, as you could believe. Disbelief, and I'm trying to just muster energy to get through each day. So he contacted me sometime in June and by July when he knew I was the sole beneficiary, and he, he was very charismatic is the best way to describe it. He was very char--, charismatic over the phone. When your money comes in, I want to meet with you. I mean it was the farthest thing from my mind. I, I could care less about anything. I just wanted my baby back. And so when my money did come into my bank and cleared, he was at my house. I was renting a townhouse on Long Island, and he came from New Jersey to my house by early morning hours when that money cleared. And I was just taken aback.

[00:11:50] Bob: Caz Craffy appears to take his somber duty very seriously and cuts an impressive, comforting figure.

[00:11:58] Kim Ryan: He, yes, he was in a full military garb, never, I mean head to foot, everything, you know, but then when I met him, he, he is, well I'm sure, because everybody's taller than me, that just makes that easier, so you know, yes. He was taller than me, you know, he's military, so he, you know, he had, I don't want to say muscles, but he had the body of a military, you know, like I said, very charismatic, very matter of fact. I'm here to do what's right by Kim. And telling me not to spend my money foolishly, I couldn't deal with this at a time when I just put my baby in the ground.

[00:12:33] Bob: Kim doesn't want to talk about the money at all, but she does want to talk about the love she feels from her son, even in death. She knew he wanted her to be secure. He wanted to take care of her, to still be her mama's boy.

[00:12:48] Kim Ryan: Now remember, this is my son's money to me. It's his gift to his mama. I wanted it to last so I could always have it to remember him by. My son, I knew, was adamant about his mom getting a home. He knew I, we, we talked about it. He knew I never really had a house; I never had a home. He just, he wanted me to have a home and that was, I cried, I didn't know what to think. I was like, wait, what do you mean? Like what, you can't even fathom that kind of money when you're on disability and you're sitting her struggling to make it. And that was my son's undying love for his, for his mama. He, he um, he loved me, and it's not that the money that shows me that he loved me. It's the fact on how he, he presented it to me and never told me.

[00:13:29] Bob: So as the weeks go by and Kim talks with Craffy, she tells him that he plans to buy a townhome, and she will want to withdraw about half the money to make a large downpayment on the home. But Craffy does his best to dissuade her. He tells her to just take out a big mortgage instead.

[00:13:47] Kim Ryan: And I'm like, but I'm on disability. I, how am I going to make a mortgage payment? I, I would have done it already if I could, you know, so he was, he was a little upset when I, when I told him I am going to eventually need enough money to get a home.

[00:14:01] Bob: In fact, Craffy has a lot of other ideas where Kim should put her money. He wants her to invest it. Kim pushes back. This goes on for months.

[00:14:12] Kim Ryan: I know, I know my luck. I'm not kidding. So when I was explaining that to Caz, I was like, don't invest my money. He would call me up and, "Please invest it in Canadian cannabis." Again, this is 2018, 2019, I'm, I'm like, I don’t want to invest it. I'm like, please don't invest it. I want a dividend check. I want something to help offset the cost of living on disability. And I, I finally called my ex-husband up and said, "Oh my God. Can you talk to him? He keeps calling me about putting it into stock in Canadian cannabis." And I go, "I don't even want it in stock, let alone cannabis. I don't do it. Read me, get it away from me. Just leave me alone."

[00:14:54] Bob: She even meets with Craffy, brings her ex-husband along to drive home her point.

[00:14:59] Kim Ryan: I made sure he was there with me to, 'cause I knew I wasn't in the right mindset and I wanted him to remember things I knew I wouldn't remember. He was even telling Caz that, "Listen, she, her son wants her to have a home. He knew that. She can't do a mortgage. She's on disability. This is, this is her foot in the door to finally get a home in a secure place for her to live." And he, he was just so adamant. It was just like, wait a minute, wait, this is money, not yours, you know. So when I did withdraw a half of the money, he, he said I was spending it foolishly.

[00:15:32] Bob: So Kim takes half the money, buys her home, but she does follow some of Craffy's other advice. Now if you can remember this time, around 2018, the stock market is pretty volatile, and Craffy tells Kim, don't look at those brokerage statements, just ignore them. Kim is still just trying to get through every day and doesn't really pay attention to the investments. But a single phone call suddenly changes that.

[00:16:00] Kim Ryan: My daughter called me up, they had to get a hold of her. She didn't, she calls me up at 6 o'clock California time, it's 9 o'clock New York time, and I was sitting there going, what? She's like, "All I can say is the FBI is looking for you, Mom. What did you do?" And I'm like, what did I do? And I'm sitting and when she said, "It has to do with what you, the guy you met through, through the military..." and I was like, oh, I know, I knew exactly who it was.

[00:16:21] Bob: And she has some idea about why the FBI might want to talk with her. So she turns to that pile of mail sitting on the desk, the brokerage statements that Craffy had said to ignore.

[00:16:34] Kim Ryan: And that was when I started opening up all the, the letters that I was, that I had gotten from the brokerage company. I never opened them up before. I, I couldn't deal with the loss of my child. I couldn't deal with opening up mail that I, I just couldn't. Um, I went through a lot, a lot. So just I was, am and was dealing with the loss of my son solely by myself, with no support from anybody. So when I finally started opening them, I was like, wait, what does this mean? It's 2 in the morning, and I'm sitting here going, what does this mean? What does this mean?

[00:17:11] Bob: What does this mean? It's all very confusing, but there's a lot of activity and a lot of pages and a lot of fees and her balance shows something very wrong.

[00:17:24] Kim Ryan: I, I was just wondering why I didn't have as much left when I pulled it out. Like I was like, where is it? You know um... again, but grief consumed me.

[00:17:35] Bob: So eventually, she calls her ex-husband in the middle of the night for help understanding everything.

[00:17:42] Kim Ryan: He works the graveyard shift, and I'm like, "Just pull the truck over and do something. Pull over and talk to me." And he was and I just, I didn't know how to make, I didn't know how to make heads or tails out of anything. I was just like what, what do you mean, like it was $29 just under $30 for each time he put my money into a, now I can't think, and then I see what he was pulling out from and I'm like, wait a minute, that's, that's not my money. That's, now that's not in my account. That $37,000 he just made off of my money is not in my account. What is, and then I'm getting hit with $29.99 fees every time he did a trade, I, I was just flabbergasted. I'm like, wait a minute, and I’m counting them. And I only went through half a month's paperwork, and I was like, how much did he charge me? You know, so yeah, you're sitting there in disbelief scratching your head, trying to make sense out of something that one, you don't even follow and understand, but all you see is dollar signs, you know, of how much I was charged, how much I was charged.

[00:18:38] Bob: But you're looking at a pieces of paper, and you're seeing $29, $29, $29, $29 and you're thinking, oh my God!

[00:18:44] Kim Ryan: Yes. But $29 for what? And you're sitting there, and you tally, you have your calculator out, and you're, you're typing in 29.95, wait a minute? Again? 29.95. And you're like holy, like you're, you're just in disbelief that someone can do this to you. I mean I know there's people out there, I just wasn't expecting it from the military, from a person that represented the military in full uniform garb saying, "I have the best interest of you in mind. I want to make sure you don't spend your money foolishly." You know and I don't know it's, it's shocking. Still shocking.

[00:19:18] Bob: Still shocking, still confusing, but also, it's there in black and white. About half the money that should be in Kim's account is gone. So she talks to the FBI the next day.

[00:19:33] Kim Ryan: I was like, oh my God, I'm calling the FBI. Like, this is, like is like surreal, this is movie in, in my mind. This is playing out as a movie like, and I'm the character, like oh my God. The FBI? You know like holy... 'cause when they explained that, you know, did I know of him and did I give him my money? And I said, "Yes." And that's when everything just starts unfolding.

[00:19:55] Bob: And she finds out there are others, many others, Gold Star Families that worked with Caz Craffy who are now missing a lot of money.

[00:20:07] Kim Ryan: I've had to leave a Zoom meeting one time and I; I was in tears. I mean you're sitting there going, wait a minute. More and more and more and you're sitting there going, how, that many people? And how long? And you know, and how much did he, how much he actually took from everybody. You're just, you're sit--, you can't take it all in at one time. You literally have to break it down and just let it fester for a few minutes before you can go on to what they were saying next. I was literally taking notes as they were talk--, talking to me.

[00:20:33] Bob: The FBI tells Kim that Craffy is under investigation for redirecting Gold Star Family death benefits into investments that paid him high commissions. He was being paid by the Army to give financial counseling to families in grief, and he was being paid to place large investments that earned him big money. The accounting is tricky, but in the end, Kim believes the amount taken from her is staggering.

[00:21:01] Bob: What do you figure he stole from you?

[00:21:03] Kim Ryan: Uh, the other 200,000, give or take about. I'm, I'm probably one of the least amounts. He's taken up as high as 400,000 from some families. I don't have an exact amount because I'm missing a lot of paperwork.

[00:21:15] Bob: At about the same time, a lawyer named Natalie Khawam-Case is trying to help people like Kim track down all that paperwork. She represents military families in all kinds of lawsuits, and she's suddenly getting a lot of complaints about a military financial advisor in New Jersey.

[00:21:34] Natalie Khawam-Case: I got a phone call uh somebody said that they had, you know, it’s my office, somebody said that there was somebody out there investing money and felt like there was some kind of fraud happening. I remember I’m seeing one person call and then that same day later in the day, another person called in the next day, a couple people called and I just said, what’s going on here? Like there seems like, it seems like the, the same issue. Is it, could it be the same person, you know, which is an anomaly, and it was the same person, all these persons that are being defrauded that were Gold Star Family people.

[00:22:08] Bob: When Natalie starts to look into this man, Caz Craffy, some things stick out right away. He lives an extravagant life. He has a $2 million home, for example, and the families that are complaining all say things started out well but something eventually seemed off.

[00:22:27] Natalie Khawam-Case: And so I heard the same issue by many of these people which was, he was kind, he was charming, he was sweet. He, you know, he would send these emojis and stuff like that. But when it came to asking, "Hey, where’s my, you know what is, where is my investment? Where are we? What’s the balance?" And then they say, “Oh don’t worry about it,” as he did. “Don’t look at your financial statements,” uh, that kind of thing.

[00:22:51] Bob: As Natalie investigates, she gets to know a lot of these Gold Star Families including Kim.

[00:22:57] Natalie Khawam-Case: Kim is great. You know, she was really attached to her son. She was one of those parents that I, I id--, I do idolize her, because she really was dedicated to her son’s memory and I love that a mom could love her child so much and hold him in such honor and fight for his legacy. So Kim was great. Kim was one of those people that are fighters and they want to make sure the right thing is done and I love to represent clients like Kim because they are the ones that really give me a lot of in--, inspiration to do what I do.

[00:23:30] Bob: As Natalie continues her investigation, Craffy's scheme unravels pretty quickly.

[00:23:36] Natalie Khawam-Case: So he was a financial advisor uh in the Reserves. So he got access to people to Gold--, Gold Star Families and was supposed to sit there and advise them with, you know, the best thing to do is this, that, that informing them of how much money they got and what’s the best way to protect their money. But he overstepped that line, that red line and he also took advantage of that because he had them investing in the company that he worked for. He’s not allowed to do that. You can advise them, but you can’t invest their money. So and he knew that. He knew that in the sense where it was inappropriate and that’s why he put on his uniform to meet them and then used his contacts and then yet took them to another company that he worked for and had them invest. So he was wearing two hats when he knew that was unethical and a conflict uh and took advantage of that. So that was you know the unethical part of it, then he also lied with his forms that he filed. So he was taking basically advantage of Gold Star families through his, through his relationship with the Army.

[00:24:43] Bob: And, and he earned $1.4 million in commissions doing that, right?

[00:24:47] Natalie Khawam-Case: Correct.

[00:24:48] Bob: And that's why Craffy told his clients not to look at their statements.

[00:24:53] Natalie Khawam-Case: He was in a sense hoarding the information from his clients so that way they wouldn’t see what he was doing and getting close to them, inviting them to a wedding, and doing things like that that are just not, you know, everyone feels like they’re special, and everyone feels like, oh, well he likes me, that’s why he invited me.

[00:25:11] Bob: So the first thing Natalie has to do is protect what's left of the victim's money.

[00:25:16] Natalie Khawam-Case: Well I, I could not tell my clients to withdraw. That was something, it was, it was one of those issues where I wanted the SEC because I, myself, am not a financial advisor, so I can’t give someone financial advice. That is something that they could speak to with another financial advisor. What I did say is, possibly if, so I don’t know where you are with your situation. I don’t know what the rules and regs are with your situation. You know, obviously, you always want somebody to get out as soon as possible, but you also want to make sure you’re doing it properly. They’re, are they going to have penalties? Are they going to have these issues? So what I do is I contacted other financial advisors that I knew were decent, respected financial advisors, and asked my clients to, would they be willing to speak to them and get some advice from them. Because giving advice when you don’t know what you're doing is also a bad idea. So go to someone who’s respected in that field or that people know and let them give them advice. My advice was to make sure that they were protected and that, that Caz was, and in on this, was going to be held accountable.

[00:26:24] Bob: And one way she makes sure Craffy is held accountable, is she reaches out to The Washington Post which writes a story on the scheme. Soon after, federal authorities move on the con man. Here is New Jersey Spotlight News on July 7, 2023.

[00:26:41] (news clip) A Monument County man was charged today with defrauding two dozen Gold Star Families. Caz Craffy is a financial counselor with the United States Army who used his role as a major to profit off of the families of fallen servicemembers, according to New Jersey's US Attorney Phillip Sallinger, who announced the federal charges. Craffy is facing six counts of wire fraud and several counts of securities fraud, each one punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

[00:27:09] Natalie Khawam-Case: So it happened quite quickly. They were transparent, they were keeping tabs, they, they let me know when they arrested Caz, and that all happened fairly quickly which is great because the clients weren’t waiting around in limbo with what’s going to happen to this guy, is this guy going to stay on the streets and so on and so forth. So, you know, since we had so many agencies involved, it, everything worked out really well.

[00:27:34] Bob: Meanwhile, Kim has stayed in touch with federal agents and she's anxiously awaiting word about Craffy's fate.

[00:27:40] Bob: Do you remember uh where you were, what you were doing when you heard that he had been arrested?

[00:27:45] Kim Ryan: Um, I was in touch with um this, this gentleman, and he was telling me he was going there that morning, the next morning. We were on the phone the night before. So my thing with him was like please let me be a fly in your car, please let me a fly in your car and see what happens. So I eagerly awaited and they got to his house, I think before 7 in the morning, and he was totally shocked, and I'm sitting there and I, I asked him for every detail of what, did he do this? But a lot of my concern was, and I don't know if the other uh, victims feel the same way was, is he going to flee the country? I watch too much Criminal Minds.

[00:28:18] Bob: But after, after that, you know when you hung up the phone, how did it feel that he was finally in handcuffs?

[00:28:24] Kim Ryan: Ahh, great! Oh my God, it's like, oh, I hope they, I hope they shackled him too. Like you should have seen me. I was like you know maybe they shackled his hands to his body and they have his feet shackled. Like I hope so, you know. I hope he's sitting there wondering what's going to happen to him for what he did. I wanted to see the fear in his eyes on what he did to everybody and that he was caught. The best I could get was a description, but I did want to see what the deer in the headlight look that he must have had when they came knocking on his door, 'cause I was told he didn't expect it at all.

[00:28:55] Bob: About 10 months later, in April of this year, Caz Craffy pleads guilty. Kim prepares a victim impact statement that's part of the sentencing hearing in August. She read part of it for us.

[00:29:08] Kim Ryan: It says, you know, "Mr. Caz Craffy, you call yourself a man. The Army calls you an officer. When you look in the mirror, what do you see?" And I said, "I see neither. I see a demon who hid with to me what that you thought would be a safety net by using and abusing, um, and deceiving the US military by name as well as the government." And then I just go in to say that "It was my son's blood, sweat, and tears that earned you your X amount of dollars, your," what, he got a $2.1 million home in New Jersey. "That's, that's my son's blood, sweat, and tears, not yours. Who do you think you are taking my son's blood, sweat, and tears, and taking it for yourself and pocketing it?" So that's my point, I wanted to hit home with him. And then in the final conclusion of it, I wrote down because my last name is my son's first name. It's not what he met me as. I said, "I hope you're surprised to see me here today before you. If you think you can take advantage of a grieving mother at her weakest, most vulnerable moment in her life," I go, "but I stand here before you in honor and memory of my son, Specialist Ryan N. Kettell, standing tall, standing proud, can you say the same? You can't, you're in handcuffs. So you may, you may have think you've victimized me, but I'm still going to be ahead of you no matter what."

[00:30:24] Bob: On August 21, Craffy is sentenced to a long prison term. 151 months. He's also on the hook for $3.9 million in restitution.

[00:30:36] Bob: How do you feel about the sentencing?

[00:30:38] Natalie Khawam-Case: Well it's amazing, you know like you rarely see someone get sentenced to more than what the government asked. So the government asked, I believe, for 121 months, it was 121, yeah, I think 121 months, maybe it was 131, but either way, the judge gave him 151 months.

[00:30:58] Bob: So Craffy is put away for a long time, but that doesn't mean justice has really been served.

[00:31:06] Kim Ryan: His home is currently in foreclosure. He can't get a job because of everything he's done. How are you going to pay back the $3.9 million? Mine is kind of like pennies compared to everybody else.

[00:31:19] Bob: What's the likelihood that somebody like Kim will see anything at the end of all this?

[00:31:23] Natalie Khawam-Case: So our goal is to, you know, make sure that our clients get compensated everything they lost. So that would be probably unlikely with Caz, because I don't think that guy has the money to repay everyone.

[00:31:38] Bob: So Natalie is pursuing additional legal action in an attempt to make people like Kim whole again, to give back that roughly $200,000 which had been stolen, and that could really help Kim.

[00:31:51] Kim Ryan: I'm not embarrassed to say I'm struggling. I'm on disability. I'm not cutting it on a disability check, especially back in New York. I, 'cause that money would come in truly handy for just a lot of things that are outstanding that are not letting me sleep at night. When you haven't paid your property taxes yet and it's already July, please, I am not losing my house that my son gave me. This would come in real handy to help somebody. I mean but I don't, I know, I know reality also, I know what life is, it's not like somebody's going to come up to me and say, "Kim, here's your $200,000 and yay, go catch up, and you won't lose your house." And this, you know it’s, it's, if it works, it works. If it, if it doesn't, I still have to march forward in honor of my baby.

[00:32:36] Bob: The sentencing does mean Kim can reflect on all that's happened to her and how Craffy took advantage of her at her darkest hour.

[00:32:46] Kim Ryan: I knew I was vulnerable. I knew, I knew I was. I was at the worst, worst time of my life ever. I was trying to pull out of the fiery pits of hell. I was praying to die at night when I lost my son, praying, please just take me so I could be with him. So yes, when somebody approaches you like this and you're in that mindset that the grief is so painful that you don't even care if you live or die, you're not thinking about what somebody's actually saying to you. You know there should be an advocate that should be able to go with somebody, that is a third party, that's not you know partial to, to them or you. You know I kinda wish there was a little more for somebody who would have said, okay, listen. He's saying this to you, and you're saying that to him. At, at least be able to point out something where it would be like, oh this seems a red flag or this seems okay. You know again, I took everything for what he said, and I ran with it. I was like, all right, you do what you have to do and I'm going to sit here and try to live ea--, you know get through today. You know I; it was the only thing I could do and I still only do one step at a time. I can't think about tomorrow, and that's, it was even worse 6 years ago. Well, you know, it's, it's just unfathomable what somebody can do to somebody else in, in a human form like that, like you know and to be trusted because you were military. We, we considered you a brother. You were, you were a brother in arms, so it, it was devastating.

[00:34:11] Bob: But it's easy to see how it all happened.

[00:34:13] Kim Ryan: And yes, and he, like I said, ooh, very charismatic to a T, you know, "I have your best interest in mind." Really? You know and I, listen I needed something to grasp onto. I didn't have anybody, so the words were comforting for me, especially after what, you know, I've been through and a lot of other people have been through. So I really, as humans we want to have that faith in another person, I believe we want to believe that other person. So you're telling me you have my best interest in mind, you kinda hold onto it, and you cradle it for a little bit. At least I did. I was like all right, let him do that. It's one less thing for me to have to worry about. He's got it. He's, he's got it under his control.

[00:34:53] Bob: Natalie thinks one thing that listeners can learn from this story is to notice warning signs that a financial advisor might not have your best interests in mind.

[00:35:03] Natalie Khawam-Case: Yeah, he befriended them first, you know and like that’s also something for your audience to always know. When someone’s too nice, too kind, um, you know they want to be friendly, they want to talk on friendly terms, there’s nothing wrong with being friendly, but it’s always an issue, a red flag whenever someone’s friendly and they’re not being transparent. Transparency’s so important. You don’t want to have someone being transparent about their family and friends, and you know, their life, their personal life. You want to tell them to be transparent about what they’re doing with your money, or what they’re doing with uh your health.

[00:35:38] Bob: And when someone tells you not to look at your own statements... well that's a red flag too.

[00:35:44] Natalie Khawam-Case: And so that was what I noticed with what he was doing with a lot of these people, telling them not to worry. "Don't worry, don't worry," you know as if he's worried about their health. "Don't," you know, "you'll get, you'll get nervous. You don't want to see this. You, it's, it's hard to explain." Whenever somebody tells you that, it's really a bad thing. Always like, with me, sometimes I do get close to my clients and I care about my clients, but it's a different way. You know it's always about being very open with them and telling them all the pluses and minuses. Um, telling them like hey, this is a good idea, but if I were you, I would look at this. You know, you've got to be very transparent with them, because an informed client is their best client.

[00:36:26] Bob: And most of all, it's important to understand Craffy and criminals like him are very persuasive and well-practiced at their crimes.

[00:36:36] Natalie Khawam-Case: Well so no one should ever beat themselves up on this. You know a criminal; a con artist is a con artist. There’s no way of outsmarting a con. It’s always just, the only thing you can always do is just avoid them or get the red flags and see the red flags and just say, you know what, I don’t, he may be a nice person, but he’s probably a nice person to have tea with, not a nice person to invest with.

[00:36:57] Bob: And there's a message Kim wants to drive home to listeners.

[00:37:02] Kim Ryan: And you can't take a book by, you can't judge a book by its cover, 'cause that's what we did with this guy, Caz. We took him at face value for what he was saying to us verbatim, for word for word. And you can't, you've got to do more investigation work, and we, we all make an effort to look him up further. We just never it occurred to us to look into him deeper. You know he didn't tell us he was a broker. I think maybe if he said that it would have been a red flag. But you know like you, you can't, you can't go on what somebody says. You have to, you have to really do your own homework. You have to do your own homework on anybody nowadays because nobody can be trusted and that's, that's a really sad thing in today's world, it really is.

[00:37:39] Bob: Natalie still has questions about the Army's role in this situation.

[00:37:44] Bob: How do you feel about what the military has done to prevent something like this from happening in the future? Have they done enough?

[00:37:51] Natalie Khawam-Case: I don’t think they’ve done enough. Um, I’d like to see the Army and the DOD step up and do some more, have some more scrutiny when they’re hiring people, and doing audits on the people they hire, you know random audits on, you know, fact checking, history checking. Maybe meeting with their families, maybe if they would have drove by his house and saw he had a, a couple of million-dollar home that he’s living in. Maybe they’ve been like, wait a second, how is this guy driving luxury cars? There's things like, there needs to be more diligence and there needs to be more scrutiny. And the DOD’s so big and the Army’s so big, but that still does not give them an excuse. And it’s so big and it has lots of resources. They should just do, be more uh diligent with the people that they hire and the people that are representing them.

[00:38:35] Bob: We asked the US Army to offer a comment to us for this story. They didn't get back to us in time for this episode, but the Army issued a statement to NBC News which read, in part, "The Army conducted a thorough investigation and found this to be an isolated case. We remain dedicated to ensuring the Army actively supports the commitment to honoring and caring for the families of our fallen soldiers." Natalie really wanted to leave listeners with a couple of additional pieces of advice.

[00:39:08] Natalie Khawam-Case: So I think one important thing is people should always go on, on the SEC website and the FINRA website to check on an investor that they’ve met, or somebody that’s investing their company. So you know, doing some research on anyone that you meet with their background, their success, or their losses and such, so it’s important to always through in--, just invest... taking the time to research the person that you are, you’re going to hire as your doctor, as your lawyer, as your investor; it’s so important to do that. 'Cause then you can, again, kind of get that information and you can ask questions about it. You know, you can ask like, “Hey I saw this. Why does it say that you’re barred from investing?” The second thing that you can do is you could ask that person, "Hey, do you have any clients that I can speak to that are," you know you can even like narrow it down to Army veterans, "because I want to speak to someone who’s an Army veteran that invested with you, or that represented you." You know like, so if someone were to call me and say, “Hey, I’m thinking about hiring you as my attorney,” and I’m a, say I’m a Green Beret, “Do you have any Green Berets that you represented, because I’d love to talk to a brother of mine or a sister of mine, and see how you are as an attorney.” Like so I could give you a list of Green Berets, and I can give you a list of anything you want, or anyone you want because I represent people all over the world. So I have those lists and I’m always happy to give them out. And I honestly would have more respect for someone that would ask me that than someone who wouldn’t because I love a diligent person, ‘cause I’m diligent. So it would, I always say an informed client is the best client. So being informed and asking questions shows that you care. You care about your money, you care about your family, ’cause you’re protecting your family with your money, and you care about yourself. And that is a person I want to represent is somebody who actually takes the time to look into things, somebody who has skin in the game, that cares. So that’s a good thing to do if you can, or if you don’t have a computer, you can ask someone to do it for you.

[00:41:05] Bob: That's great advice, not just get references, but get references that are really specific to your situation. I like that a lot.

[00:41:10] Natalie Khawam-Case: Correct.

[00:41:12] Bob: That FINRA website she mentioned by the way is the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority; they regulate brokers. Their site is at FINRA.org, and it's a great resource. Kim will carry on her heart forever scarred by the loss of her son; her financial future now even more uncertain. But she looks for hope and inspiration and comfort where she can find it.

[00:41:39] Kim Ryan: When I'm having a bad day and I ask myself for a sign, and I look up in the clouds, there will be a heart in the clouds. And I have taken pictures of them and I've showed them to other people saying, "Listen, can you tell me what you see?" And they're like, "A heart." And I'm like, okay, so it's not just me. I'm not making this up in my head. I, I've put it on Facebook. "Can anybody tell me what they see in the clouds here? Please tell me what you think you see." Um, send it to friends that know me very well, and they'll be like, "Kim, there's a hear-, there's a heart there. I see the heart." And I'm like, "That's my son, because I asked him to give me a sign because I'm having a particularly rough day." Show your mom that you're still here for me and there's always a heart somewhere or a rainbow, but it's mostly hearts in the clouds.

[00:42:19] Bob: For The Perfect Scam, I'm Bob Sullivan.

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[00:42:30] Bob: If you have been targeted by a scam or fraud, you are not alone. Call the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline at 877-908-3360. Their trained fraud specialists can provide you with free support and guidance on what to do next. Our email address at The Perfect Scam is: theperfectscampodcast@aarp.org, and we want to hear from you. If you've been the victim of a scam or you know someone who has, and you'd like us to tell their story, write to us. That address again is: theperfectscampodcast@aarp.org. Thank you to our team of scambusters; Associate Producer, Annalea Embree; Researcher, Becky Dodson; Executive Producer, Julie Getz; and our Audio Engineer and Sound Designer, Julio Gonzalez. Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. For AARP's The Perfect Scam, I'm Bob Sullivan.

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