With more than four million followers, Ghanaian musician and social media star Mona Faiz Montrage, better known online as Hajia4Reall, has deleted her Instagram account.
This occurs after she entered a guilty plea on Wednesday, February 21, in the $2 million romance scam case.
She was charged with being a member of a Ghanaian-based criminal enterprise that carried out numerous frauds, including romance scams, on American people and companies. She was charged with six counts for her alleged involvement in May 2023.
The socialite entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to receive stolen money, according to the United States Attorney's Office website. There is a five-year maximum penalty for this charge.
A few days before she entered a guilty plea, Hajia4Real had already removed everything from her Facebook. But after hearing the news, a lot of her supporters discovered they could no longer view the material on her page and that clicking on it would result in a notification saying the page had been taken down.
Hajia4Reall also consented to make restitution in the same amount and pay forfeiture of $2,164,758.41.
She's waiting on approval.
In May 2023, Hajia4Reall was extradited to the US from the UK due to her alleged involvement in a $2 million romance scam known as "sakawa" that targeted older, unmarried Americans. She was accused by the prosecution of conspiring to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and other offences that carry a maximum term of 20 years in jail.
She was also charged with conspiracy to accept stolen money, which carries a possible term of five years in prison, and receipt of stolen money, which brings a maximum punishment of ten years in jail.
The prosecution claims that the Influencer was a part of a Ghana-based criminal enterprise that perpetrated many frauds against American people and companies starting at least in 2013 and ending at least in 2019.
They said that the Enterprise regularly carried out romance scams, tricking the victims into thinking they were in a romantic relationship with someone who was actually a fictitious identity taken on by members of the Enterprise through emails, texts, and social media messages.
Members of the Enterprise persuaded victims to transfer money to bank accounts they mistakenly believed were controlled by their romantic interests after successfully convincing them that they were in a romantic relationship and winning their trust. In reality, the bank accounts were controlled by members of the Enterprise.
The prosecution stated that Hajia4Reall was paid money by a number of victims of romance scams that were conned into sending money by members of the Enterprise.
Payments to bring gold to the United States from overseas payments to settle a fictitious FBI inquiry and payments to help a fictitious U.S. Army commander obtain money from Afghanistan were a couple of the false pretenses used to persuade victims to donate money to Hajia4Reall.
Over $2 million in fraudulent funds were received by bank accounts under the control of Hajia4Reall from the Enterprise.
However, in May 2023, the socialite entered a not guilty plea to all allegations and was subsequently freed on bond.
Reiterating her innocence, she posted a now-deleted Instagram post on June 26, 2023. She thanked her followers for "your love and prayers showed to me during these difficult times."
She went on to say that her vindication will come in due course.
"There is time for everything, and the world will come to know the truth, and my story will be heard," the caption read.
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