The Federal Bureau of Investigation will look for those engaged in the romance fraud saga, according to lawyer Ebenezer Apiagyei, a US-based prosecutor and Supreme Court advocate.
He claims that those responsible should not assume that they are going unnoticed and that instead they will be apprehended when the time is appropriate and all investigations have been completed.
“Absolutely, you cannot defraud United State citizens, and go scot-free. The fact that they have not come to your time, doesn’t mean nobody is investigating you. There were a group of individual enterprise, 8 of them were indicted in 2020, they investigate them from 2014 to 2018. You realise that they were investigating this individual from 2013 to 2019. As a prosecutor, I can tell you, this might not go to trial, because they have enough evidence against them,” he explained.
Ghent Multimedia listened on while attorney Ebenezer Apiagyei chatted with Frank Ntiamoah Williams during the interview.
Background
The United States Attorney’s Office revealed in a statement on May 15, 2023 that Ghanaian social media personality Mona Faiz Montrage, better known as Hajia4Reall, is formally the target of a six-count prosecution in a Manhattan Federal Court.
The socialite was deported from the UK to the US after it was claimed she defrauded elderly, unmarried American men and women out of over US$2 million in a romance scam.
The statement claims that on Monday, May 15, 2023, Mona4Reall appeared in court for her alleged participation in a number of schemes that preyed on vulnerable people who were living alone.
According to the New York Post news outlet, the socialite entered a not guilty plea to the allegations and will be released soon on a $500,000 bail with GPS monitoring through an ankle monitor.
Mona is accused of wire fraud, money laundering, receiving stolen property, and conspiracy. Her attorney, Adam Cortez, acknowledged to The Post that Mona got money from multiple other victims of con artists in her network.
Montrage may spend up to 20 years behind bars if found guilty on the most serious crime.
She was associated with a group of con artists from West Africa from at least 2013 to 2019 according to court filings.
Under false pretenses, such as helping transport gold into the US from abroad, ending fictitious FBI investigations, or receiving payments to assist phony US Army troops in Afghanistan, the con artists would persuade victims to send money to them.
Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement shared by the New York Post said, “Thanks to the efforts of our law enforcement partners, Montrage was arrested abroad and has been brought to the United States to face justice. These scams can be both financially and emotionally devastating for vulnerable victims.”
Until her case is resolved, Cortez said his client is only permitted to travel in specific areas of New York and New Jersey.
