Hajia4Reall sentenced to 1 year and a day for romance scam with no ICE detention

Ghanaian Socialite and Influencer, Hajia4Reall has been sentenced to jail by a US Court to one year and a day for romance scam charges.

Hajia4Reall whose real name is Montrage Faiz was sentenced on Friday, June 28 after she pleaded guilty to romance scam charges in February 2024.

The sentencing occurred in New York under U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken.

Her sentencing is without Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention. This means that Hajia4Reall will not be held in jail for an extra 48hours after serving her jail term.

She will be allowed to fly back directly from prison to Ghana on the day she is released from custody.

• Hajia4Reall to be sentenced today, June 28

Inner City Press, a news website based in the US which reports on criminal cases, says Hajia4Reall’s sentencing is without no ICE detention as opposed to the case of many non-US citizens and the extra day is to allow for ‘good time credit’.

VLOG II June 28: Ghana influencer Mona Faiz Montrage a/k/a @Hajia4Reall was this afternoon sentenced to a year and a day in US prison then flight straight back to Ghana, no ICE – @SDNYLIVE Inner City Press thread: https://t.co/nv5NDDuPCK pic.twitter.com/SAOVBRrS6D

— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) June 28, 2024

After pleading guilty to the romance scam schemes, Hajia4Reall’s lawyers pleaded with the court for a three-month sentence because she is a single mother whose presence in the life of her child is very imperative.

But the US Attorney’s Office countered strongly, citing similar cases to argue for the full 37-month term.

To the US Attorney’s Office, a reduced sentence will not be fair and will not serve as a proper deterrent to people.

Read also: Hajia4Reall pleads guilty to receiving fraud proceeds from romance scam; faces up to 5 years in prison

Hajia4Reall named the father of her daughter as the man who introduced her to internet fraud.

According to her, she met Allison in 2015 and fell in love with him in the United States of America without having any knowledge of his fraudulent activities.

She later discovered he was into fraud, something he introduced her to and got her involved in.

Read more: Hajia4Reall deactivates Instagram account temporarily amidst alleged $2m romance scam

Hajia4Reall was hit with a six-count Indictment charges for her role in a series of romance schemes and for laundering the proceeds of those schemes.

She was arrested in the United Kingdom on November 10, 2022, and was extradited from the United Kingdom on May 12, 2023.

Background

In May 2023, it was reported that Hajia4Reall has been extradited from the UK to the United States to face criminal charges against her which included conspiracy to fraud and receive proceeds of over $2 million from romance scams.

According to the US Attorney, from at least in or about 2013 through in or about 2019, Montrage was a member of a criminal enterprise (the “Enterprise”) based in West Africa that committed a series of frauds against individuals and businesses in the U.S. including romance scams.

Many of the Enterprise’s romance scam victims were vulnerable, older men and women who lived alone.

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York said the Enterprise frequently conducted the romance scams by sending the victims emails, text messages, and social media messages.

According to court documents, Hajia4Reall received money from several victims of romance frauds who members of the Enterprise tricked into sending money.

Among the false pretenses used to induce victims to send money to Montrage were payments to transport gold to the U.S. from overseas payments to resolve a fake FBI investigation, and payments to assist a fake U.S. Army officer in receiving funds from Afghanistan.

In total, Montrage controlled bank accounts that received over $2 million in fraudulent funds from the Enterprise.