Ghanaian singer Mona Faiz Montrage, also known as Hajia4Real or Mona 4Reall, has been extradited to the United States in connection with a $2 million romance scam.
After spending some time in the UK, she was extradited to the US for her involvement in a scam that affected older people, single Americans, and women.
According to federal prosecutors, the popular Ghanaian socialite appeared in federal court in Manhattan in May.
"She has entered a plea of not guilty to the charges and, according to her attorney, will be released in the coming days on a $500,000 bond with GPS monitoring via an ankle monitor," a statement said.
"The court documents allege that the scammers would get victims to transfer money to them under false pretenses - such as helping to move gold from overseas to the United States, resolving fake FBI investigations, and making payments to help impersonate U.S. Army officers in Afghanistan," federal prosecutors added.
In one case, Montrage allegedly duped a victim into sending her $89,000 through 82 wire transfers under the pretext of helping her father's farm in Ghana, court documents said.
After a series of phone conversations using her real identity, she sent them tribal marriage certificates as a way of tricking each other into believing they were married, the document said.
"As alleged, Mona Faiz Montrage was a member of a criminal conspiracy that specifically targeted older Americans with romantic scams," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. "These scams can be both financially and emotionally devastating for vulnerable victims."
"Thanks to the efforts of our law enforcement partners, Montrage was arrested abroad and brought to the United States to face trial," the statement continued.
Mona was arrested on November 10, 2022.
She was charged with wire fraud, money laundering, receiving stolen money and conspiracy.
"All we know at this point is that there are six alleged victims, and only two of them are related to a woman, and only one of them claims to have had a relationship with Ms. Montage," her attorney, Adam Cortez, told the Post.