Pleading guilty in a $2 million romance scam lawsuit is Ghanaian social media star Mona Faiz Montrage, sometimes referred to as Hajia 4Reall.
The socialite admitted guilt to one count of conspiring to receive money that had been stolen, according to the United States Attorney’s Office website.
An imprisonment term of up to five years is possible for this offense. Along with making restitution in the same amount, Hajia4Reall also consented to forfeit $2,164,758.41.
Later, Paul A. Crotty, the U.S. District Judge, will sentence the well-known social media user.
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, made the guilty plea announcement.
Attorney Williams stated, “Mona Faiz Montrage was arrested abroad and now faces serious consequences for her actions. She knowingly received money stolen from older Americans through romance scams.”
He maintained that elderly and weak victims of the romance scam suffered because they had to confront the harsh truth that their virtual romantic relationships were fictitious.
“This Office and our law enforcement partners are tenacious in apprehending fraudsters who prey on Americans, regardless of their location,” the attorney continued.
In May 2023, Hajia4Reall was extradited to the US from the UK due to her alleged involvement in a $2 million romance scam known as “sakawa” that targeted older, unmarried Americans.
She was also accused of conspiring to accept stolen money, which has a maximum five-year prison penalty, and receiving stolen money, which carries a maximum ten-year prison sentence.
The Influencer was a part of a Ghana-based criminal enterprise that, according to the prosecution, committed several frauds against American people and businesses between at least in/or about 2013 and at least in/or approximately 2019.
According to what they said, the Enterprise regularly carried out romance scams in which it tricked victims into thinking they were in a romantic relationship with someone who was actually a fictitious identity taken on by members of the Enterprise through emails, texts, and social media posts.
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.
The prosecution stated that Hajia4Reall was paid money by a number of victims of romance scams that were conned into sending money by members of the Enterprise. 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 couple of the false pretenses used to persuade victims to donate money to Hajia4Reall.
Hajia4Reall was in charge of bank accounts that the Enterprise had fraudulently funded with more than $2 million in total.
However, in May 2023, the socialite entered a not guilty plea to all allegations and was subsequently freed on bond.
Reiterating her innocence, she posted a now-deleted Instagram post on June 26, 2023. She thanked her followers for “your love and prayers showed to me during these difficult times.”
She went on to say that her vindication is just a matter of time.
“There is time for everything, and the world will come to know the truth, and my story will be heard,” the caption read.
watch full video here
