Robert Murray Jr., a retired U.S. Navy chief hospital corpsman who served 20 years, deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and earned the Combat Action Ribbon, has been permanently enjoined by a federal court in Illinois after using his military service as the foundation of a $355,000 investment fraud that targeted fellow sailors, reservists, and veterans through a Facebook group called the Goats, slang for Navy chief petty officers. Murray founded Deep Dive Strategies LLC in September 2020, promoted himself as a skilled options trader on Facebook and Discord, and raised nearly $355,000 from 44 investors across 14 states. He lost most of the fund on GameStop options contracts during the meme stock frenzy of January 2021, and misappropriated approximately $148,000 for personal expenses — including casino gambling at venues in Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin — before leaving the fund with $1 in it and cutting off contact with investors. The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois entered the final consent judgment on May 4, 2026, permanently enjoining Murray from future securities violations and ordering disgorgement of $112,271.71, deemed satisfied by the restitution order entered against him in the parallel criminal case.
Murray Targeted Fellow Navy Chiefs Through the Goats Facebook Group with 3,500 Members
The Goats Facebook Group was a private community of more than 3,500 current and former Navy members who shared an interest in investing. Murray, a retired chief, was a natural fit for the group’s audience. He promoted himself as having developed an effective trading algorithm during the COVID-19 pandemic and streamed what he presented as live trading sessions on Discord to demonstrate his purported skill. The SEC described the scheme as using “the veneer of trustworthiness created by his U.S. Navy service” to attract investors. Murray provided investors with formal documentation — an Operating Agreement, a Disclosure Statement, and terms that included a 2% annual administrative fee and 20% of any trading profits — giving the fund the appearance of a legitimate private investment vehicle.
What investors did not know was that Murray had no meaningful track record as a trader, and that he would begin spending their money on himself within days of receiving the first contributions. Three days after Deep Dive Strategies received its first investor funds, Murray used the fund’s debit card to make a $638.99 purchase at Helzberg Diamonds. According to the SEC’s original complaint, investors were told their money would be placed in the fund and used to invest in publicly traded securities. That representation was false almost from the first deposit.
Nine Minutes After Wiring $10,000 from the Fund, Murray Bought Casino Chips in Cleveland
The pattern of misappropriation that the SEC documented is both specific and damning. On February 2, 2021, Murray transferred $10,000 from the Deep Dive Strategies fund account to his personal bank account, which had less than $1,000 in it at the time. Nine minutes after completing that transfer, Murray purchased $10,400 in casino chips at a Cleveland casino using the same personal bank account. Similar withdrawals were made on days when Murray visited casinos in Indiana, Wisconsin, and elsewhere in Ohio. In total, Murray misappropriated approximately $148,000 — roughly $83,500 in cash withdrawals, $58,800 transferred directly to his personal account, and approximately $8,700 in debit card expenses charged to the fund.
Murray also traded with some of the investor funds, but with disastrous results. The fund suffered severe losses on January 13, 2021, when Murray made a large bet on GameStop options contracts at the height of the meme stock frenzy. His final trade came 10 days later: a bet on deeply risky options contracts that had the potential to lose all their value within 24 hours. They did. By February 2022, the fund contained $1, which Murray withdrew. He had told investors they could redeem their money at the end of 2021. Instead, he cut off contact with them by March 2021 and refused to provide any accounting of the fund’s activity.
Four Wire Fraud Counts in the Criminal Case and a Restitution Order That Satisfies SEC Disgorgement
The SEC filed its civil charges against Murray in July 2022. In December 2022, a federal grand jury in the Northern District of Illinois returned a criminal indictment charging Murray with four counts of wire fraud. The DOJ announcement at the time of the indictment noted that investors lost all of the funds they entrusted to Murray, totaling more than $342,000. Each wire fraud count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. Murray pleaded guilty in the criminal case, and a restitution order was entered against him. The final consent judgment in the SEC civil case, entered May 4, 2026, permanently enjoins Murray from violating Sections 5(a), 5(c), and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5, and Sections 206(1), 206(2), and 206(4) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. The $112,271.71 disgorgement order is deemed satisfied by the criminal restitution order.
Conclusion
The Murray case is a study in affinity fraud built on military brotherhood. The trust that Navy chiefs extend to one another — forged through years of shared service, deployment, and training — was the mechanism Murray exploited. He did not approach strangers. He joined the Facebook group they were already in, used his chief’s anchors as credentials, and presented himself as someone using his post-service time to build wealth for the community. The fund went from receiving its first dollars in October 2020 to having $1 left by February 2022. Every investor lost everything they put in. Murray is now permanently enjoined from the securities industry, subject to a criminal restitution order, and now lives in Anchorage, Alaska — far from the Facebook group of 3,500 sailors and veterans he defrauded.
