Hajia4Real Completes Jail Term in US Prison
Ghanaian social media influencer, Mona Faiz Montrage, popularly known as Hajia4Real has completed serving her term at the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center after being found guilty of fraud and money laundering.
She is set to be released on May 22, 2025, according to the US Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator.
The 32-year-old after her release will undergo three years of supervised release.
After pleading guilty to conspiracy to receive stolen money, she received 12 months and one day sentence and an order to forfeit $216,475 and pay restitution in the amount of $1,387,458 from U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken on June 28, 2024.
Romance Scam
She was found to have engaged in a series of frauds against 40 individuals and businesses in the U.S including romance scams from around 2013 to 2019 as a member of a “criminal enterprise” based in West Africa.
A statement released by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, on July 1 said she targeted older people and vulnerable and controlled bank accounts that received over $2 million in fraudulent funds for the Enterprise.
Her victims, it said, were tricked into sending the money.
“Among the false pretences used to induce victims to send money to MONTRAGE were payments for transporting gold to the U.S. from overseas, payments to resolve a fake Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) investigation, and payments to assist a fake U.S. Army officer in receiving funds from Afghanistan.”
“Many of the Enterprise’s romance scam victims were vulnerable, older men and women who lived alone,” it added.
The enterprise got its victims hooked up through emails, text messages, and social media messages that deceived the victims into believing that they were in romantic relationships with a person who was, in fact, a fake identity assumed by members of the Enterprise.
“Once members of the Enterprise had successfully convinced victims that they were in a romantic relationship and had gained their trust, they convinced the victims, under false pretences, to transfer money to bank accounts the victims believed were controlled by their romantic interests, when, in fact, the bank accounts were controlled by members of the Enterprise.”
Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini
