9/10/18 A 64-year-old former mailroom employee at Jacksonville’s VyStar Credit Union was indicted on 10 federal counts of mail fraud after $5.4 million in company funds were embezzled between 1994 to 2017, according to a 14-page U.S. District Court indictment

The indictment indicated that one of Sikes’ duties was to receive company checks to buy postage for VyStar’s postage meter, the machine used to send out company mail. VyStar issued those checks weekly to add the postage to the meter, the indictment said. The checks were made out to “U.S. Postmaster,” the indictment said.

Every other week, the check was instead used to buy “a large amount” of U.S. Post Office stamps at Jacksonville’s Main Post Office on Kings Road, the indictment said. Those stamps were then shipped to a New York-based stamp company, which sold them at about 80 percent market value and mailed Sikes a portion of the sales proceeds, the indictment said.

From $5.4 million paid for postage by VyStar, the company paid about $3.663 million for the stamps between 2007 to 2017, the indictment said.

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