Hajia4Reall, a well-known socialite and influencer in Ghana, entered a guilty plea to accepting money obtained through romance scams.
The Southern District of New York’s United States Attorney, Damian Williams, stated today that Mona Faiz Montrage, also known as Hajia4Reall, had entered a guilty plea for her part in laundering the money from several romance frauds. MONTRAGE admitted to conspiring to get money by theft in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah L. Cave today.
In a press statement released earlier today, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Mona Faiz Montrage knowingly received money stolen from older Americans through romance scams and was arrested abroad and now faces serious consequences for her actions. Romance scams such as Montrage’s harmed her vulnerable, elderly victims not only in the cruel betrayal of trust in the realization that their online romantic connection was fiction, but by also callously stealing their money. This Office and our law enforcement partners are relentless in bringing fraudsters who target Americans to justice, no matter where they are.”
According to the allegations in the indictment and declarations made during open court hearings and public filings:
MONTRAGE was a part of a criminal organization (the “Enterprise”) based in West Africa that perpetrated a number of frauds against people and companies in the United States, including romance scams, from at least in or about 2013 through at least in or about 2019.
Many of the elderly, single men and women who fell victim to romance scams at the Enterprise were weak targets. The victims of the Enterprise’s romance frauds were often tricked into thinking they were in a love relationship with someone who was actually a fictitious persona taken on by members of the Enterprise through emails, texts, and social media messaging.
Members of the Enterprise persuaded victims to transfer money to bank accounts they mistakenly believed were controlled by their romantic interests after successfully convincing them that they were in a romantic relationship and winning their trust. In reality, the bank accounts were controlled by members of the Enterprise
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Hajia4Reall became well-known as an influencer because to her Instagram account, which at one point had 3.4 million followers and ranked in the top 10 accounts in Ghana with the most followers.
Several victims of romance scams who were duped into transferring money by Enterprise members gave her money. Payments to bring gold to the United States from overseas, payments to settle a fictitious FBI inquiry, and payments to help a fictitious U.S. Army commander obtain money from Afghanistan were a few of the false pretenses used to coerce victims into sending money to MONTRAGE.
Over $2 million in fraudulent funds were received by bank accounts under the control of MONTRAGE from the Enterprise.
Hajia4Reall, 31, entered a guilty plea to a charge of conspiring to obtain money that has been stolen, which carries a five-year maximum jail sentence. She also consented to pay $2,164,758.41 in forfeiture and the same amount in restitution. Paul A. Crotty, the U.S. District Judge, will sentence Montage.
Congress has specified the maximum possible sentence in this case, and the judge will decide the defendant’s sentence.
