- Hajia4Reall, a socialite and social media influencer from Ghana, entered a guilty plea to accepting money obtained through romance scams. The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York detained Mona Faiz Montrage, better known online as Hajia 4Real, on suspicion of laundering the money from many romance frauds. Montrage admitted guilt before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah L. Cave to conspiring to accept stolen money.
- The Enterprise is a West African-based criminal organization that perpetrated several frauds, including romance scams, on American people and companies. Elderly single men and women who were susceptible made up a large portion of the victims of the Enterprise. They were tricked into thinking that they were romantically involved with someone who was impersonating an Enterprise employee. After gaining their confidence, they persuaded victims to transfer funds to bank accounts under the Enterprise’s control.
- With almost 3.4 million followers and a ranking in the top 10 accounts with the most followers in Ghana, Montreal became well-known as an influencer on Instagram. Several victims of romance scams who were duped into transferring money by Enterprise members sent her money. Among the false pretenses used to get victims to transfer money to Montrage were payments for the transportation of gold from outside into the United States, payments to close a fictitious FBI investigation, and payments to help a fictitious U.S. Army commander obtain money from Afghanistan.
- Montrage entered a guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to accept stolen money, which carries a five-year maximum jail term. She also consented to pay $2,164,758.41 in forfeiture and the same amount in restitution. Paul A. Crotty, the U.S. District Judge, will sentence Montrage.
