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?
(MUSIC SEGUE)
[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.
And this is a tale dripping with greed and cruelty and we dare not forget it.
[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.
So he was a huge hockey fan and player.
His, every year for my son’s birthday, his birthday was December 23rd.
[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.
His father always took him, but it’s okay.
I stayed home with my, my daughter, so we, we did our own thing.
[00:02:43] Kim Ryan: My Ryan, because he was always my Ryan.
My Ryan, he, he was a mama’s boy.
He was proud of it.
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 I’d be like, “What?!
What, what do I do?”
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?”
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.
I’m laughing hysterical because to me it’s just the funniest thing.
I didn’t know how to take it off.
And I was looking at him, “Mom, are you okay?”
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.
[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.
Youve got to, you, you got to go onto college.
And he didn’t want to do college.
[00:05:48] Bob: Wow, and he was 18, 19?
[00:05:51] Kim Ryan: Uh, 18.
[00:05:53] Bob: Hmm.
[00:06:03] Kim Ryan: Yes.
[00:06:36] Bob: And, and he takes that from you.
He’s, he was a true mama’s boy that way.
[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.
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.
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.
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.
[00:08:15] Bob: Oh my God.
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.
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.
Nobody expected this, nobody anticipated this.
He was always that happy-go-lucky kid.
Um, he passed June 9th which was four days after my birthday.
[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.
She is the sole beneficiary; that’s a surprise to her.
And that is where the story we are telling today really begins.
I was in shock, of course, as you could believe.
Disbelief, and I’m trying to just muster energy to get through each day.
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.
And I was just taken aback.
I’m here to do what’s right by Kim.
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.
I was like, wait, what do you mean?
And that was my son’s undying love for his, for his mama.
It’s the fact on how he, he presented it to me and never told me.
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?
He wants her to invest it.
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, “yo invest it in Canadian cannabis.”
I’m like, c’mon 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.”
She can’t do a mortgage.
She’s on disability.
And he, he was just so adamant.
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.
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?
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 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?
Like I was like, where is it?
You know um… again, but grief consumed me.
Pull over and talk to me."
That’s, now that’s not in my account.
That $37,000 he just made off of my money is not in my account.
I’m like, wait a minute, and Im counting them.
[00:18:44] Kim Ryan: Yes.
But $29 for what?
I want to ensure you don’t spend your money foolishly."
You know and I don’t know it’s, it’s shocking.
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.
And I said, “Yes.”
And that’s when everything just starts unfolding.
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 you know, and how much did he, how much he actually took from everybody.
I was literally taking notes as they were talk–, talking to me.
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.
Like there seems like, it seems like the, the same issue.
He lives an extravagant life.
He, you know, he would send these emojis and stuff like that.
Whats the balance?"
And then they say, Oh dont worry about it, as he did.
Dont look at your financial statements, uh, that kind of thing.
[00:22:57] Natalie Khawam-Case: Kim is great.
You know, she was really attached to her son.
So Kim was great.
[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.
Hes not allowed to do that.
you’ve got the option to advise them, but you cant invest their money.
So and he knew that.
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.
[00:25:16] Natalie Khawam-Case: Well I, I could not tell my clients to withdraw.
That is something that they could speak to with another financial advisor.
What I did say is, possibly if, so I dont know where you are with your situation.
I dont know what the rules and regs are with your situation.
Theyre, are they going to have penalties?
Are they going to have these issues?
Because giving advice when you dont know what you’re doing is also a bad idea.
So go to someone whos respected in that field or that people know and let them give them advice.
Soon after, federal authorities move on the con man.
Here is New Jersey Spotlight News on July 7, 2023.
[00:27:09] Natalie Khawam-Case: So it happened quite quickly.
We were on the phone the night before.
I watch too much Criminal Minds.
[00:28:24] Kim Ryan: Ahh, great!
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.
Kim prepares a victim impact statement that’s part of the sentencing hearing in August.
She read part of it for us.
The Army calls you an officer.
When you look in the mirror, what do you see?"
And I said, “I see neither.
“That’s, that’s my son’s blood, sweat, and tears, not yours.
So that’s my point, I wanted to hit home with him.
It’s not what he met me as.
I said, “I hope you’re surprised to see me here today before you.
you’re free to’t, you’re in handcuffs.
[00:30:24] Bob: On August 21, Craffy is sentenced to a long prison term.
He’s also on the hook for $3.9 million in restitution.
[00:30:36] Bob: How do you feel about the sentencing?
[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.
[00:31:51] 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.
This would come in real handy to help somebody.
And this, you know its, it’s, if it works, it works.
If it, if it doesn’t, I still have to march forward in honor of my baby.
[00:32:46] 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.
He’s saying this to you, and you’re saying that to him.
You know again, I took everything for what he said, and I ran with it.
I can’t think about tomorrow, and that’s, it was even worse 6 years ago.
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.
You know and I, listen I needed something to grasp onto.
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.
“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.
You know it’s always about being very open with them and telling them all the pluses and minuses.
[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.
Theres no way of outsmarting a con.
[00:36:57] Bob: And there’s a message Kim wants to drive home to listeners.
We took him at face value for what he was saying to us verbatim, for word for word.
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 could’t, you could’t go on what somebody says.
You have to, you have to really do your own homework.
[00:37:39] Bob: Natalie still has questions about the Army’s role in this situation.
Have they done enough?
[00:37:51] Natalie Khawam-Case: I dont think theyve done enough.
Maybe theyve 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 its so big and it has lots of resources.
[00:38:35] Bob: We asked the US Army to offer a comment to us for this story.
Natalie really wanted to leave listeners with a couple of additional pieces of advice.
You know, you might ask like, Hey I saw this.
Why does it say that youre barred from investing?
So I have those lists and Im always happy to give them out.
So it would, I always say an informed client is the best client.
So being informed and asking questions shows that you care.
I like that a lot.
[00:41:10] Natalie Khawam-Case: Correct.
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?
c’mon tell me what you think you see.”
I see the heart.”
[00:42:19] Bob: For The Perfect Scam, I’m Bob Sullivan.
Call the AARP Fraud Watch connection Helpline at 877-908-3360.
Their trained fraud specialists can provide you with free support and guidance on what to do next.
That address again is: theperfectscampodcast@aarp.org.
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.
