Two Former CU Employees Plead Not Guilty to Embezzlement Charges
A November jury trial is scheduled for Duane Allen Sikes.
Two former credit union employees have pleaded not guilty to embezzlement charges.
A November 5 jury trial is scheduled for Duane Allen Sikes, former mailroom employee of the Jacksonville, Fla.-based Vystar Credit Union, who was indicted last month for allegedly embezzling $5.4 million over 15 years.
Sikes pleaded not guilty on Sept. 14 in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville, Fla., to ten felony counts of mail fraud and five felony counts of embezzlement.
In U.S. District Court in Central Islip, N.Y, Suzanne Silva pleaded not guilty to one felony count of embezzlement on Sept. 19. The former COO of the $34 million Winthrop-University Hospital Employees Federal Credit Union in Mineola waived her right to a speedy trial, according to court documents.
The 64-year-old Sikes of Jacksonville worked in Vystar’s mailroom from 1994 to 2017. Part of his duties included using Vystar issued checks to buy postage for a postage meter that paid for the credit union’s mail expenses.
Vystar issued checks every week to pay for the meter’s postage. However, on every other week, Sikes allegedly used the credit union’s checks to buy large amounts of postage stamps from the Jacksonville post office. He then shipped these stamps to a vendor, Ben Art Stamp Co., the wholesale division of Mystic Stamp Co. in Camden, N.Y. The vendor sold theses stamps and cut a check to Sikes for his portion of the sales proceeds, according to the indictment.
Between 2007 and 2017, Ben-Art Stamp Co. paid Sikes more than $3.6 million. However, federal prosecutors said in court documents that the former mailroom employee sold stamps to the vendor over 15 years and allegedly embezzled a total of $5.4 million from the $7.7 Billion Florida credit union.
Vystar CU said it discovered Sikes’ alleged fraud, reported it to authorities, conducted an internal investigation and took immediate steps to enhance its internal processes. The credit union said it is fully cooperating with federal investigators.
The 35-year-old Silva was indicted last month for allegedly embezzling more than $465,000 from the Winthrop-University Hospital Employees FCU and spent the funds on Caribbean cruises, travel to Cancun and thousands of dollars a month on Amazon and Etsy.
In March 2011, the indictment alleged that Silva began making unauthorized transfers from Winthrop University HEFCU accounts to her accounts and credit card accounts she maintained at other financial institutions.
She was fired in June.