Ghanaian influencer and musician Mona Faiz Montrage, widely known as Hajia4Real, has allegedly duped one of her victims using a fake marriage certificate.
As per court documents obtained by Gossips24 Avenue, the socialite opened a total of five bank accounts in the Bronx, New York, using the names of different non-existent business ventures.
According to reports, the socialite used these 5 banks to dupe and steal from 6 victims
Per the court documents, one of the victims was a sixty-year-old man who entered into an online relationship with Mona. Subsequently, the victim received a fake marriage certificate from Mona as purported proof of their marriage recognition in Ghana.
Mona then requested substantial sums of money from this victim, purportedly to support her father’s farm in Ghana. The victim sent a total of 82 wire transfers, amounting to $89,000, from Converse, Texas, to Accra, Ghana, through Moneygram. These transfers were addressed to Mona, using the victim’s last name.
According to the documents, the “Say What” hitmaker had deposited money to the tune of $2,165,000 between December 31, 2013, and October 15, 2019.
A majority of such deposits were in cash and international wire transfers to Ghana.
In addition to the above, a romance scheme in which Mona allegedly defrauded a 70-year-old woman was uncovered.
Using a male persona, she established an online relationship with the victim and claimed to need financial assistance for transporting gold from overseas to the United States. She instructed the victim to send a check to a bank account under the name “4Reall Designs” and asked the victim to specify that the funds were intended for an investment. The victim complied and sent $195,000 from a bank account in SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, through ‘Montrage Account 3.’ However, the victim did not receive her money back or any returns on her supposed investment.
Check out the documents and video below for the other findings:
Background
Ghanaian socialite and influencer, Mona Faiz Montrage, popularly known as Hajia 4Reall has been fingered in a romance scam in the United States of America.
Hajia4real is alleged to be a member of a criminal conspiracy known as the Enterprise that specifically targeted older Americans through romance scams which were both financially and emotionally devastating for vulnerable victims.
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, she had been doing this from about 2013 through to 2019.
Under false pretense, she is alleged to have induced victims to send money for payments to transport gold to the United States from overseas, resolve a fake FBI unemployment investigation and assist a fake United States army officer in receiving funds from Afghanistan.
She is said to have received approximately 82 wire transfers totaling approximately $89,000 to purportedly help with costs associated with her father’s farm in Ghana.
In total, Hajia4Real is believed to have controlled bank accounts that received over $2 million in fraudulent funds from the Enterprise.
She is currently facing six charges, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of wire fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy, and one count of money laundering, each of which carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
She is also charged with one count of receipt of stolen money, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and one count of conspiracy to receive stolen money, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. In total, she could see a possible 95-year jail term.
Currently, the defendant, Hajia4Reall is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Hajia4Real was arrested in the United Kingdom on November 10, 2022, and was extradited from the United Kingdom on May 12, 2023.
She has been Extradited From the United Kingdom To The United States, where U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty will be handling the case.
The case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mitzi Steiner and Kevin Mead are in charge of the prosecution.
Mona Faiz Montrage born June 26, 1992, better known by her stage name as Mona 4Reall or Hajia4Reall is a Ghanaian socialite, model, musician, businesswoman.