A former credit union employee in Florida has been implicated in a criminal case involving mail fraud and millions of dollars in stolen stamps.
The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Division, has filed a 15-count indictment against Duane Allen Sikes, 64, accusing him of stealing about $5.4 million from his former employer, Vystar Credit Union, a $7.7 billion institution based in Jacksonville.
Sikes, who worked in Vystar’s Jacksonville mailroom from 1994 to 2017, allegedly used his job to obtain checks issued by the credit union to purchase postage for the Pitney Bowes postage meter which Vystar used to send out its mailings. However, according to the indictment, Sikes instead used the money to buy large amounts of postage stamps at Jacksonville’s main post office. The court alleges Sykes would subsequently ship the bulk of stamps to a vendor called Ben-Art Stamp Company, the wholesale division of Mystic Stamp Company in Camden, N.Y. The company then allegedly sold the stamps and issued Sykes checks for his portion of the proceeds.
Between 2007 and 2017 alone, Sikes was believed to have been paid almost $3.7 million by Ben-Art from the stamp scheme. In all, Sikes allegedly embezzled $5.4 million from Vystar in the form of checks the credit union intended to be used to buy postage.
Representatives of Vystar did not respond to Credit Union Journal's request for comment.
As if all of that wasn't enough, Sikes also apparently had a long career as a movie producer.
