Today, Mona Faiz Montrage, better known by her stage name Hajia 4Reall, is scheduled to be released from the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia, where she was imprisoned for a year and a day.
Based on information made publicly available by the US Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator, the 32-year-old Ghanaian is scheduled to be released on May 22, 2025.
Her conviction for conspiracy to receive stolen funds in connection with a criminal organization based in West Africa that engaged in romance scams and online fraud led to her imprisonment.
Montrage was extradited from the United Kingdom to the United States in May 2023. She gained notoriety through her Instagram account, “Hajia4Reall,” which has over 3.4 million followers.
In February 2024, she entered a guilty plea, and on June 28, 2024, U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken sentenced her.
Montrage was a member of an organization that cheated elderly, vulnerable Americans out of almost $2 million, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Approximately forty victims sent her money, which she physically transferred into bank accounts in the United States while posing as someone else.
Claims such as payments for gold transportation, settling a false FBI probe, and helping a phony U.S. Army officer obtain funds were among the ones made to trick victims.
Over $2 million in illegal revenues was transferred to bank accounts under Montrage’s control.
In addition to her prison sentence, she was ordered to forfeit $216,475 and pay $1,387,458 in restitution, and she was also sentenced to three years of supervised release.
Court documents state that the sentencing judge accepted a timeframe for her return to Ghana that was suggested by her legal team.
She was ready to start again and make a positive contribution to society when she returned, her attorneys told the court.
Source: newsthemegh.com