{"id":67308,"date":"2023-05-16T00:00:12","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T00:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/"},"modified":"2023-05-16T00:00:12","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T00:00:12","slug":"mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/","title":{"rendered":"Mona 4Real extradited to US over alleged $2m ‘sakawa’ targeting older single Americans"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
\n
Socialite Mona 4Reall or Hajia4Reall has been extradited to the United States from the United Kingdom over her alleged involvement in a $2 million romance scam locally called \u2018sakawa\u2019 targeting older, single Americans.<\/p>\n
According to federal prosecutors, the 30-year-old model appeared in Manhattan federal court on Monday, May 15 for her alleged involvement in a series of romance schemes targeting older people who lived alone.<\/p>\n
The lady born Mona Faiz Montrage pleaded not guilty to the charges.<\/p>\n
Hajia4Reall is set to be released on home detention to her aunt\u2019s New Jersey residence in the coming days on a $500,000 bond with GPS tracking via an ankle monitor, her lawyer and the prosecutor\u2019s office have confirmed.<\/p>\nPhoto source: Instagram \/ @hajia4reall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Michael J. Driscoll, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), announced the unsealing of a six-count Indictment charging Hajia4Real for her role in a series of romance schemes and for laundering the proceeds of those schemes. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Mona 4Reall is a public figure who rose to fame as an influencer through her Instagram profile, under the username \u201cHajia4Reall,\u201d which at one point had approximately 3.4 million Instagram followers and was among the top 10 profiles with the most followers in Ghana.<\/p>\n
She was arrested in the United Kingdom on November 10, 2022, and was extradited from the United Kingdom on May 12, 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\nPhoto source: Instagram \/ @hajia4reall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
She was presented before U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty, to whom the case is assigned today.<\/p>\n
FBI Assistant Director in Charge Michael J. Driscoll said, \u201cWe alleged today that Ms. Montrage participated in multiple romance scams \u2013 often targeting elderly victims \u2013 resulting in more than $2 million in fraudulent funds under her control.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cRomance scams \u2013 especially those that target older individuals \u2013 are of major concern.\u00a0The FBI will be tireless in our efforts to hold fraudsters accountable in the criminal justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the court, from at least in or about 2013 through in or about 2019, the Influencer was a member of a Criminal Enterprise based in Ghana that committed a series of frauds against individuals and businesses in the United States, including romance scams.\u00a0<\/p>\nPhoto source: Instagram \/ @hajia4reall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The court said, \u201cMany of the Enterprise\u2019s romance scam victims were vulnerable, older men and women who lived alone.\u00a0The Enterprise frequently conducted the romance scams by sending the victims emails, text messages, and social media messages that deceived the victims into believing that they were in romantic relationships with a person who had, in fact, a fake identity assumed by members of the Enterprise.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce members of the Enterprise had successfully convinced victims that they were in a romantic relationship and had gained their trust, they convinced the victims, under false pretences, to transfer money to bank accounts the victims believed were controlled by their romantic interests, when, in fact, the bank accounts were controlled by members of the Enterprise.\u201d<\/p>\nPhoto source: Instagram \/ @hajia4reall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The prosecution said, \u201cMontrage received money from several victims of romance frauds whom members of the Enterprise tricked into sending money.\u00a0Among the false pretences used to induce victims to send money to Montrage were (i) payments to transport gold to the United States from overseas; (ii) payments to resolve a fake FBI unemployment investigation; and (iii) payments to assist a fake United States army officer in receiving funds from Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
The court said in one incident with her victims she used her real name and spoke to the victim several times by phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMontrage later sent the victim a tribal marriage certificate purporting to show that Montrage and the victim had been married in Ghana.\u00a0<\/p>\nPhoto source: Instagram \/ @hajia4reall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u201cThe victim sent Montrage approximately 82 wire transfers totalling approximately $89,000 to purportedly help with costs associated with Montrage\u2019s father\u2019s farm in Ghana.\u201d<\/p>\n
It added that \u201cIn total, Montrage controlled bank accounts that received over $2 million in fraudulent funds from the Enterprise.\u201d<\/p>\n
DISCLAIMER: <\/strong>The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Socialite Mona 4Reall or Hajia4Reall has been extradited to the United States from the United Kingdom over her alleged involvement in a $2 million romance scam locally called \u2018sakawa\u2019 targeting older, single Americans. According to federal prosecutors, the 30-year-old model appeared in Manhattan federal court on Monday, May 15 for her alleged involvement in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment"],"yoast_head":"\n
Mona 4Real extradited to US over alleged $2m 'sakawa' targeting older single Americans - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mona 4Real extradited to US over alleged $2m 'sakawa' targeting older single Americans - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Socialite Mona 4Reall or Hajia4Reall has been extradited to the United States from the United Kingdom over her alleged involvement in a $2 million romance scam locally called \u2018sakawa\u2019 targeting older, single Americans. According to federal prosecutors, the 30-year-old model appeared in Manhattan federal court on Monday, May 15 for her alleged involvement in a […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-16T00:00:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Hajia4Reall.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ghana News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ghana News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/\",\"name\":\"Mona 4Real extradited to US over alleged $2m 'sakawa' targeting older single Americans - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Hajia4Reall.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-16T00:00:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-16T00:00:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/#\/schema\/person\/6f91dab2e50bbbfe895c93e7e84e7f74\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Hajia4Reall.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Hajia4Reall.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Mona 4Real extradited to US over alleged $2m ‘sakawa’ targeting older single Americans\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"Ghana mma provides breaking news, top stories in Ghana, Africa, business, entertainment, politics and more.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/#\/schema\/person\/6f91dab2e50bbbfe895c93e7e84e7f74\",\"name\":\"Ghana News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ghana News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/author\/ghanamma\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mona 4Real extradited to US over alleged $2m 'sakawa' targeting older single Americans - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mona 4Real extradited to US over alleged $2m 'sakawa' targeting older single Americans - Ghanamma.com","og_description":"Socialite Mona 4Reall or Hajia4Reall has been extradited to the United States from the United Kingdom over her alleged involvement in a $2 million romance scam locally called \u2018sakawa\u2019 targeting older, single Americans. According to federal prosecutors, the 30-year-old model appeared in Manhattan federal court on Monday, May 15 for her alleged involvement in a […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/","og_site_name":"Ghanamma.com","article_published_time":"2023-05-16T00:00:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Hajia4Reall.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ghana News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ghana News","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/","name":"Mona 4Real extradited to US over alleged $2m 'sakawa' targeting older single Americans - Ghanamma.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Hajia4Reall.jpg","datePublished":"2023-05-16T00:00:12+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-16T00:00:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/#\/schema\/person\/6f91dab2e50bbbfe895c93e7e84e7f74"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Hajia4Reall.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Hajia4Reall.jpg","width":1280,"height":720},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/05\/16\/mona-4real-extradited-to-us-over-alleged-2m-sakawa-targeting-older-single-americans\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mona 4Real extradited to US over alleged $2m ‘sakawa’ targeting older single Americans"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/","name":"Ghanamma.com","description":"Ghana mma provides breaking news, top stories in Ghana, Africa, business, entertainment, politics and more.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/#\/schema\/person\/6f91dab2e50bbbfe895c93e7e84e7f74","name":"Ghana News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ghana News"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023"],"url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/author\/ghanamma\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Mona](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/1684195211_598_image-142.png\" "\\"Mona")
![\"Mona](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/image-140.png\" "\\"Mona")
![\"Mona](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/image-139.png\" "\\"Mona")
![\"Mona](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/image-138.png\" "\\"Mona")
![\"Mona](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/image-143.png\" "\\"Mona")