NORFOLK — A mother and son who allegedly conspired to obtain personal property and identifying information of jail inmates were indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday.
In a news release from the Department of Justice, officials said Delanio Vick, 31, and Teresa Gallop, 49, both of Norfolk, were indicted on charges of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, making false statements in an application to a federally insured institution and aggravated identity theft.
The two worked together with a third person, 20-year-old Jessie Davis, of Portsmouth, who was also named in the indictment.
According to the indictment, Vick, Gallop and Davis worked with other conspirators inside jails that recruited inmates to retain the services of a fictitious legal services company, FamUnited, also known as Famm United or FamilyTranzitions.
Conspirators posed as paralegals during phone calls with inmates, according to the release, in which the conspirators promised to help the inmates with bail bonds. In exchange for their service, inmates would release their personal property from the jails’ custody. According to the release, conspirators submitted forged property release forms to the jail if an inmate did not agree to do so.
After the trio obtained any personal property, which often included wallets and cell phones, they then opened bank accounts in the inmates’ names. For some inmates, they created forged power of attorney forms in attempt to legally act on the inmates’ behalf. The indictment said that the accused used these documents to gain access to inmates’ existing bank accounts.
Newly created bank accounts were used to conduct fraudulent transactions and unauthorized withdrawals.
Gallop, who has more than 60 previous felony convictions, served jail time for other fraudulent crimes according to an earlier Department of Justice release. In 2009, Gallop was sentenced to seven years in jail for health care fraud and making false statements relating to health care matters when she was arrested for staging car accidents to collect insurance claims.
According to the 2009 release, Gallop directed Vick, who was a teenager at the time, to deliberately cause an accident with a friend’s car at a specified location. In each coordinated crash, Gallop and several children were inside an involved vehicle and would seek medical treatment for fabricated injuries, police said.
Gallop would then submit medical bills with altered expenses and dates of services to insurance providers for reimbursement, according to the release. Police said Gallop received checks from the insurance companies as a result of submitting these fraudulent personal injury claims.
Anyone with information about the ongoing investigation concerning FamUnited is encouraged to contact the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at 804-418-6104.
