Ghanaian social media influencer, Mona Faiz Montrage, popularly known as Hajia4Reall has been extradited from the United Kingdom to the US for allegedly swindling over $2 million from older, single American men and women in a twisted romance scam.
Mona Faiz Montrage, 30, has pleaded not guilty to the charges levelled against her after she appeared in Manhattan federal court on Monday.
She is set to be released on home detention to her aunt’s New Jersey residence in the coming days on a $500,000 bond with GPS tracking via an ankle monitor, her lawyer and the prosecutor’s office had confirmed.
“As a result of committing the money laundering offences alleged in Counts Three and Four of this Indictment, MONA FAIZ MONTRAGE, the defendant, shall forfeit to the United States, pursuant to Title 18. United States Code, Section 982 (a) (1), any and all property, real and personal, involved in said offences, and any property traceable to such property, including but not limited to a sum of money in United States currency representing the amount of property involved in said offences,” the prosecutors added in a writ sighted by ABC News.
Below are the six charges against Hajia4Reall:
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.
