A Duval County jury has found Jacksonville resident Norman Caison guilty of grand theft and money laundering after prosecutors showed he personally withdrew $7,000 in cash from a Chase Bank branch within an hour of a Neptune Beach woman depositing it there, believing she was following instructions from her own credit union. Caison now faces up to 15 years in Florida state prison.
The scheme began on July 21, 2025, when the victim received a phone call from someone claiming to represent Community First Credit Union, according to a case summary from News4JAX. The caller told her fraudulent activity had been found on her account and asked her to verify her name and date of birth before flagging a supposed $1,300 pending Zelle transaction. He then instructed her to deposit her money into a Chase account, promising the funds would be returned by midnight.
Believing she was protecting her savings, the victim withdrew $7,000 and deposited it into the Chase account using an ATM in Neptune Beach. The scammer followed up with a confirmation text containing further instructions, had her add a debit card to her Apple Wallet, and told her to change her username and password. By the next morning, she found both her bank account and her Apple Wallet cleared out, and she reported the theft to the Neptune Beach Police Department.
Surveillance Footage Ties Caison to the Cash
Investigators with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and Neptune Beach police traced the stolen funds to Caison, who surveillance video captured withdrawing the victim's cash from the Chase branch within an hour of her deposit. Bank records showed the money was subsequently transferred into a co-defendant's account, and state prosecutors said Caison had coordinated with an unidentified co-conspirator beforehand to launder money stolen from compromised bank accounts into that co-defendant's account and other financial institutions, per the same account.
State Attorney Melissa Nelson announced the guilty verdict, and the case was prosecuted by Assistant State Attorneys Joseph Licandro and Fallon Hinkley. Circuit Judge Anthony Salem is scheduled to preside over Caison's sentencing hearing in Duval County Court at a later date, according to the State Attorney's Office. Under Florida Statutes governing third-degree grand theft and third-degree money laundering, each charge carries up to five years in prison, with the aggregated counts capable of reaching the 15-year maximum Caison now faces.
A Familiar Name in Florida Fraud Networks
This is not Caison's first brush with an organized fraud operation. In August 2023, he was arrested as part of a Florida Highway Patrol investigation that uncovered a criminal network responsible for fraudulently procuring and selling roughly 700 disabled person parking placards across the state using stolen medical credentials, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. That scheme involved fraudulently applying for placards through a Liberty County tax office using a retired pediatrician's stolen identity.
The tactics used against the Neptune Beach victim also match a warning Community First Credit Union of Florida issued to its members in June 2025, when the credit union alerted customers that fraudsters were spoofing its official phone numbers and impersonating representatives to claim fake Zelle charges. Community First is a Jacksonville-headquartered, state-chartered institution with more than $3 billion in assets and roughly 194,000 members across the First Coast, a scale Hoodline detailed in reporting on its Clay County growth.
Part of a Bigger National Pattern
Caison's conviction lands amid a broader surge in bank impersonation fraud nationwide. Federal Trade Commission data published in 2026 showed imposter scams were the most-reported fraud category in the country in 2025, costing consumers $3.5 billion, with reported losses nearly tripling since 2020, according to a report from Fortra. Within that category, scammers posing as financial institution representatives drove nearly $1 billion in consumer losses in 2025 alone, making bank impersonation the most lucrative subcategory of imposter fraud in the country.
The phone-based approach used against the Neptune Beach victim is also the costliest method scammers use. Federal Trade Commission data published in 2025 found that consumers who interact with scammers over the phone lose a median of $1,500 per person, the highest per-person loss among all initial contact methods, since live conversations let fraudsters create urgent psychological pressure. Separate FTC reporting found text-message fraud losses reached $470 million nationwide in 2024, with fake bank security warnings ranking as the most commonly reported text scam, a pattern that mirrors the confirmation text the Neptune Beach victim received.
Northeast Florida has seen other cases involving fraudulent activity at local credit unions in recent weeks. Hoodline previously reported on two Jacksonville fraud suspects accused in a separate scheme involving fraudulent deposits at VyStar and Community First Credit Union accounts. It remains unclear whether Caison's co-conspirator and co-defendant face additional charges, and prosecutors have not indicated whether any portion of the victim's $7,000 has been recovered.
