A Ghanaian social media star, known as Hajia4Reall, is facing trial in the US for allegedly defrauding over $2 million from lonely and elderly Americans in a cruel online dating scam.
The 30-year-old, whose real name is Mona Faiz Montrage, was extradited from the UK to the US and appeared in a federal court in Manhattan on Monday. She denied the charges against her.
She is expected to be released on a $500,000 bond and placed under house arrest at her aunt’s home in New Jersey with an ankle monitor that tracks her location, according to her lawyer and the prosecutor’s office.
The prosecutors said that Mona Faiz Montrage must forfeit any property involved in the money laundering offences alleged in two of the six counts of the indictment, or any property that can be traced back to them, including a sum of money in US currency.
Below are the six charges against Hajia4Reall:
Article Contents
Count One – Conspiracy to commit wire fraud
At all times relevant to this Indictment, MONA FAIZ MONTRAGE, the defendant, and others known and unknown, were members of a criminal enterprise (the “Enterprise”) based in West Africa that committed a series of frauds against individuals and businesses located across the United States, including in the Southern District of New York.
The Enterprise has perpetrated multiple romance scams, among other fraud schemes.
Count Two – Wire Fraud
From at least in or about 2013, up to and including at least in or about 2019, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, MONA FAIZ MONTRAGE, the defendant, knowingly having devised and intending to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud, and for obtaining money and property by means of false and fraudulent pretences, representations, and promises, transmitted and caused to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, and television communication in interstate and foreign commerce, writings, signs, signals, pictures, and sounds, for the purpose of executing such scheme and artifice, to wit, MONTRAGE engaged in a scheme to perpetrate and facilitate fraud schemes, including by defrauding Victim-1 and receiving wire transfers and cash deposits from victims of romance scams, which scheme involved, among other things, the use of interstate wires transmitted through the Southern District of New York.
Count Three – Money Laundering Conspiracy
From at least in or about 2013, up to and including at least in or about 2019, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, MONA FAIZ MONTRAGE, the defendant, and others known and unknown, knowingly and willfully combined, conspired, confederated, and agreed together and with each other to commit money laundering, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1956(a)(1)(3) (i).
Count Four – Money Laundering
From at least in or about 2013, up to and including at least in or about 2019, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, MONA FAIZ MONTRAGE, the defendant, knowing that the property involved in a financial transaction represented the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity, conducted and attempted to conduct such a financial transaction which in fact involved the proceeds of specified unlawful activity as defined in 18 U.S.C. § 1956(c) (7), to wit, the wire fraud scheme charged in Counts One and Two of this Indictment, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343, knowing that the transaction was designed in whole and in part to conceal and disguise the nature, the location, the source, the ownership, and the control of the proceeds of specified unlawful activity.
Count Five – Conspiracy to Receive Stolen Money
From at least in or about 2013, up to and including at least in or about 2019, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, MONA FAIZ MONTRAGE, the defendant, and others known and unknown, knowingly and willfully combined, conspired, confederated, and agreed together and with each other to commit an offense against the United States, to wit, a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2315.
Count Six – Receipt of Stolen Money
From at least in or about 2013, up to and including at least in or about 2019, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, MONA FAIZ MONTRAGE, the defendant, received, possessed, concealed, stored, bartered, sold, and disposed of goods, wares, merchandise, securities, and money, of the value of $5,000 and more, which had crossed a state and United States boundary after being stolen, unlawfully converted, and taken, knowing the same to have been stolen, unlawfully converted, and taken, to wit, MONTRAGE received proceeds of fraud schemes, which were transferred from bank accounts and money transfer locations outside of New York to bank accounts in the Bronx, New York and elsewhere.
