The most talked-about entertainment news online is the report of Hajia4Reall receiving a one-year-and-a-day prison sentence for her involvement in a romance scam in the United States.
Inner City Press provided a detailed account of the courtroom proceedings, highlighting the interactions between the defence team and the judge during the trial.
See below;
Judge: The guideline is 37 to 46 months.
Assistant US Attorney: The victims were vulnerable senior citizens. Some were promised marriage; they sent and lost money. Middlemen received 10%.
AUSA: Defendant participated in this scheme for six years. 32 victims lost $1.4 million. Meanwhile, Ms. Montrage reinvented herself in Ghana.
Judge: She blames an abusive former boyfriend.
AUSA: He was arrested and deported. She continued. One victim confronted her…
Judge: She will be deported.
Defence lawyer: 3 months of incarceration would be enough. She didn’t know the money going into her account was from romance fraud.
Judge: She created multiple bank accounts.
Defense: She’s never before disclosed her abuse by her ex boyfriend.
Montrage: I want to pay them back. I feel shame as a mother of an 8 year-old daughter. [Sobs] Please have mercy on me.
AUSA: She started opening these accounts at different banks at an earlier time. Many in Ghana are following this case. General deterrence is needed
Defense: Victim-1 tracked her from her instagram photos – her video had a voice dubbed over, Victim-1 was catfished
Judge: I sentence Ms Montrage to one year and one day in prison, the extra day to allow “good time.”
Defense: We propose she be allowed to fly back to Ghana as soon as she is released, with no ICE detention
AUSA: We consent
The Ghanaian socialite bagged one and one day in prison for her involvement in a $2 million romance scam.
The Judge included an extra day in her sentence to account for “good time,” as per Inner City Press on X (Twitter).
Montrage pleaded guilty to conspiracy to receive stolen money in the Manhattan Federal Court on February 21. Federal authorities revealed that she oversaw bank accounts that received more than $2 million in fraudulent funds.
These funds were acquired by tricking victims, often elderly and vulnerable, into thinking they were in romantic relationships with fake identities.
The scams involved false assurances of moving gold to the US, resolving fake FBI investigations, and aiding fictitious US Army officers in Afghanistan.
One victim was swindled into sending $89,000 through 82 wire transfers after Montrage convinced them that her father’s farm in Ghana required financial aid.
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