Hajia4Reall Sentenced to One Year, Faces Deportation to Ghana

Ghanaian socialite and influencer Hajia4Reall, whose real name is Montrage Faiz, has been sentenced to one year and a day in jail by a U.S. court for romance scam charges.

She was sentenced on Friday, June 28, after pleading guilty in February 2024. The sentencing took place in New York under U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken.

Her sentencing does not include Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention, meaning Hajia4Reall will not be held in jail for an additional 48 hours after serving her term.

She will be allowed to return directly to Ghana from prison on the day of her release.

According to Inner City Press, a U.S.-based news website that covers criminal cases, Hajia4Reall’s sentencing excludes ICE detention, unlike many other non-U.S. citizens.

The extra day in her sentence is for “good time credit.” After pleading guilty to romance scam charges, Hajia4Reall’s lawyers requested a three-month sentence, emphasizing her role as a single mother and the importance of her presence in her child’s life.

But the US Attorney’s Office countered strongly, citing similar cases to argue for the full 37-month term.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office argued that a reduced sentence would be neither fair nor an effective deterrent. Hajia4Reall disclosed that the father of her daughter introduced her to internet fraud. She met Allison in 2015 and fell in love with him in the United States without initially knowing about his fraudulent activities. She later discovered his involvement in fraud, which he subsequently involved her in as well.

Hajia4Reall faced a six-count indictment for her participation in various romance schemes and laundering the proceeds. She was arrested in the United Kingdom on November 10, 2022, and extradited to the United States on May 12, 2023.

Background

In May 2023, it was reported that Hajia4Reall was extradited from the UK to the United States to face criminal charges, including conspiracy to commit fraud and receiving over $2 million from romance scams.

According to the U.S. Attorney, from around 2013 to 2019, Montrage was part of a West Africa-based criminal enterprise (the “Enterprise”) that carried out various frauds against individuals and businesses in the U.S., including romance scams. Many of the victims were vulnerable, elderly men and women living alone.

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, stated that the Enterprise often conducted the romance scams through emails, text messages, and social media messages.

Court documents reveal that Hajia4Reall received money from several victims of these romance scams, tricked by Enterprise members into sending money.

The false pretenses used included payments for transporting gold to the U.S., resolving a fake FBI investigation, and assisting a fake U.S. Army officer in receiving funds from Afghanistan. Overall, Montrage controlled bank accounts that received over $2 million in fraudulent funds from the Enterprise.