Hajia4Reall’s prison sentence, deportation plan after sentence served

Mona Faiz Montrage, aka Hajia4Reall

Mona Faiz Montrage, aka Hajia4Reall, was sentenced to prison by a US court on June 28, 2024, in connection with a marriage fraud case that began in 2023 with her extradition from the UK.

Below are the key details GhanaWeb gathered from the judgment:

Prison sentence

She was sentenced in the United States to one year and one day in prison.

Her lawyers had previously called for a three-month prison sentence, citing her young daughter and the fact that she had no previous convictions.

Prosecutors argued that a longer sentence would act as a deterrent to others involved in similar schemes.

Inner City Press, an American editorial office that has been following the case from the very beginning, shared a fragment of the hearing from the last day:

Judge: Guideline is 37 to 46 months.

Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA): The victims were vulnerable seniors. Some were promised marriage; they sent and lost the money. The intermediaries received 10%. AUSA: The defendant participated in this scheme for the first six years. 32 victims lost $1.4 million. Meanwhile, Ms. Montrage reinvented herself in Ghana.

Judge: She blames her abusive ex-boyfriend.

AUSA: He was arrested and deported. She continued. One of the victims stood before her…

Judge: She will be deported.

Lawyer: 3 months in prison would be enough. She did not know that the money in her account came from a marriage scam.

Judge: She opened multiple bank accounts.

Defense: She had never previously revealed how her ex-boyfriend had molested her.

Montrage: I want to give back to them. I feel ashamed as a mother of an 8-year-old daughter. (Sobbing) Please have mercy on me.

AUSA: She started opening these accounts in different banks earlier. Many people in Ghana are following this case. General deterrence is necessary

Defense: Victim-1 tracked her down from Instagram photos – her video was dubbed, Victim-1 was caught

Judge: I sentence Ms. Montrage to one year and one day in prison, the extra day will be for “having fun.”

Defense: We propose that she be allowed to return to Ghana immediately upon release, without being detained by ICE

AUSA: We agree

What is ICE?

ICE stands for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It’s basically the agency that makes the care decisions.

The website states: “ICE uses its limited resources to detain non-citizens to secure their presence pending immigration or removal proceedings from the United States — as well as those who are subject to mandatory detention under the Immigration and Nationality Act or who ICE determines to be a threat to public safety or to flee while determining the terms of their detention.

“If an alien is not subject to mandatory detention or is not considered a threat to public safety or flight, ICE exercises its discretion in making detention decisions to release aliens with conditions. Detention decisions are made on an individual basis and after considering the totality of the circumstances – primarily taking into account the risk of flight, the risk to national security and the risk to public safety.

“ICE also considers other factors, including whether the alien has a serious medical condition, is the primary caregiver for minor children, or other humanitarian considerations,” he added.

Hajia4Reall was charged and extradited from the UK, where she was arrested, to the US for her involvement in the affair.

According to reports available on this website, the celebrity, who talked about her career as an entrepreneur, was involved in a $2 million marriage scam.

She is said to have spoken to one of her victims several times and received wire transfers totaling $89,000 to fund her father’s farm.

The socialite was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of money laundering, and one count of receiving stolen money.

SARA