A well-known socialite and slay queen from Ghana has been returned to the US.
Mona Faiz Montrage, also known as Hajia4Reall, was deported from the UK to the US for allegedly defrauding elderly, single American men and women out of over $2 million in a depraved lonely hearts scam.
Remember that on November 10, 2022, in the UK, for the alleged conspiracy, the social media influencer whose Instagram account is among the top 10 most followed in Ghana was detained and brought to the US on May 12.
According to US authorities, the well-known socialite and singer appeared in federal court in Manhattan on Monday, May 15, for her alleged involvement in a number of romance scams that preyed on elderly individuals who were living alone.
“As alleged, Mona Faiz Montrage was a member of a criminal conspiracy that specifically targeted older Americans through romance scams,” Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “These scams can be both financially and emotionally devastating for vulnerable victims.”
She entered a not guilty plea, according to her attorney, and will be released soon on a $500,000 bond that includes GPS monitoring through an ankle monitor.
Authorities claim that Montrage was a part of a network of con artists from Ghana and Nigeria. She rose to prominence through her enormously famous Instagram page Hajia4Real, which at its peak had 3.4 million followers.
In order to provide the impression that they had romantic relationships with their victims through emails, texts, and social media conversations, these people used misleading tactics and assumed fictitious identities.
According to court documents, the con artists would then persuade the victims to send money to them under false pretenses, such as helping to transport gold into the US from abroad, ending fictitious FBI investigations, and receiving funds to assist phony US Army commanders in Afghanistan.
According to court filings, Montrage allegedly conned a victim into transferring her $89,000 over 82 wire transfers under the guise of assisting her father’s farm in Ghana.
After several phone calls using her true identity, she allegedly deceived the person into thinking the pair were married by sending them a tribal marriage certificate.
Prosecutors claim that Montrage also accepted money from several other people who had been defrauded by con artists connected to her network.
Montrage is accused with conspiracy, money laundering, receiving stolen property, and wire fraud. If found guilty of the main offence, she may spend up to 20 years in jail.
Montrage’s lawyer Adam Cortez stated;
“At this time all we know is that there are six alleged victims and only two dealt with a woman and only one of them claims that he dealt with Ms. Montrage.”
The Post ‘Just In – Extradition of Popular Slay Queen to the US for $2 million Fraud’ initially appeared on Tori
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