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Hajia4real released on $500,000 bond, with GPS tracking via an ankle monitor
Mona Montrage, popularly known as Hajia4real has reportedly pleaded not guilty during her court appearance and is set to be released on home detention to her aunt’s New Jersey residence in the coming days on $500,000 bond, with GPS tracking via an ankle monitor, her lawyer and the prosecutor’s office has confirmed.
“At this time all we know is that there are six alleged victims and only two dealt with a woman and only one of them claims that he dealt with Ms. Montrage,” her attorney, Adam Cortez, told The Post.
Mona was extradited from the United Kingdom to the US for allegedly swindling over $2 million from older, single American men and women in a twisted lonely hearts scam, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Mona Faiz Montrage, 30, of Accra, Ghana, appeared in Manhattan federal court on Monday for her alleged involvement in a series of romance schemes targeting older people who lived alone, prosecutors said.
Read also: Hajia4Real extradited to US in $2M romance scam
Montrage — who had around 3.4 million Instagram followers of her page Hajia4Reall at one point — from at least 2013 through 2019 was involved with a group of con artists from West Africa who assumed fake identities to trick people into thinking they were in relationships with them using emails, texts and social media messages, the feds said.
The scammers would then get the victims to transfer money to them under false pretenses — such as to help move gold to the US from overseas, to resolve bogus FBI investigations and payments to help fake US Army officers in Afghanistan, court papers allege.
Montrage, in one case, allegedly duped a victim into sending her $89,000 through 82 wire transfers on the pretext of helping her father’s farm in Ghana, the court documents claim.
She tricked the person into believing the pair were married by sending them a tribal marriage certificate after a series of phone conversations using her real identity, the filing alleges.
Source: NY Post