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{"id":16962,"date":"2018-09-12T07:18:57","date_gmt":"2018-09-12T14:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cucollector.com\/?page_id=16962"},"modified":"2018-09-12T07:18:57","modified_gmt":"2018-09-12T14:18:57","slug":"credit-union-employee-arrested-for-5-4m-theft","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.cucollector.com\/hot-topics\/11592-2\/credit-union-employee-arrested-for-5-4m-theft\/","title":{"rendered":"Credit Union Employee Arrested for $5.4M Theft"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/iframe><\/p>\nJacksonville, FL \u2013 12 September 2018 \u2013 A Florida man is accused of using his position at Vystar Credit Union in Jacksonville\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/news\/local\/local-movie-producer-indicted-for-5-million-vystar-fraud-scheme\/831109430\" target=\"_self\">to steal more than $5 million<\/a> by buying and selling stamps. Duane Sikes also made a name as an independent film producer in Jacksonville and threw elaborate parties at his Westside home.<\/span><\/p>\nIf you\u2019ll recall, Vystar Credit Union was also named as the source of credit cards used in a <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.cucollector.com\/hot-topics\/11592-2\/cu-credit-cards-used-in-1m-luxury-rental-car-theft-ring\/\">$1.3M luxury rental car theft ring<\/a> last week.<\/span><\/p>\nFederal prosecutors say it took 64-year-old Duane Sikes\u00a0<\/b>10 years to slowly take all that money from his employer, Vystar Credit Union.<\/span><\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm2102718\/\">Sikes\u2019 IMDB page<\/a> says he has produced 85 movies and TV shows since 2007. A source told Action News Jax he was constantly spotted at film screenings and festivals. People who worked with Sikes said he self-funded most of the projects and claimed to have a trust fund.<\/span><\/p>\nNeighbors had no idea he was allegedly hiding a big secret.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI think he lives a pretty modest lifestyle,\u201d neighbor Brandon Jones said. \u201cThere\u2019s relatively normal house, normal cars, normal family visits, I would have never guessed that there was going to be anything lavish coming out of there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nAccording to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/news\/local\/local-movie-producer-indicted-for-5-million-vystar-fraud-scheme\/831109430\" target=\"_self\">a 15-count indictment<\/a>, Sikes worked at Vystar\u2019s corporate headquarters in Jacksonville from 1994 to 2017, and was issued checks to purchase postage for the Pitney Bowes postage meter.<\/span> Some of the checks Sikes stole outright and he took others that were made out to the U.S.\u00a0Postmaster to the main post office downtown\u00a0and bought rolls of stamps —\u00a0$3.6 million worth of stamps — and sold them to Mystic Stamp Company in New York. Mystic turned around and sold the stamps for 80 percent of their face value.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe indictment states they paid him nearly $3.7 million from 2007 to 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cYou never know who lives next to you,\u201d Jones said.<\/span><\/p>\nU.S. marshals arrested Sikes in downtown Jacksonville, where they say he was meeting with his lawyer. \n<\/span><\/p>\nVystar statement on the case:<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n\u201cUpon our discovery that a former employee had defrauded the Company during his employment, VyStar immediately conducted a more comprehensive internal review, reported the matter to authorities and is cooperating fully with their investigation. Importantly, this isolated incident did not in any way compromise member personal information or accounts, and is immaterial to the Company\u2019s financials. VyStar does not tolerate behavior that is contrary to our culture and high ethical values, and has taken immediate action to address the situation and even further enhance our internal processes.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nSource: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.palmbeachpost.com\/news\/national\/florida-movie-producer-indicted-million-dollar-credit-union-fraud-scheme\/EvUgi2uNZ9boKXbg4hxGgL\/\">Palm Beach Post<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacksonville, FL \u2013 12 September 2018 \u2013 A Florida man is accused of using his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":650,"featured_media":0,"parent":11592,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-16962","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cucollector.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cucollector.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cucollector.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cucollector.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/650"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cucollector.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cucollector.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16963,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cucollector.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16962\/revisions\/16963"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cucollector.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cucollector.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}