Lawyers for incarcerated Ghanaian ‘influencer’ and socialite Mona Faiz Montrage popularly known as hajia4real have requested for her passport from the US government. It is alleged that in a document addressed to Judge J. Paul Oetken, lawyers for the socialite sought the return of Ms. Montrage’s passport to initiate her self-deportation proceedings to Ghana.

Some portions of the letter read “We represent Ms. Mona Montrage on the above-captioned matter”. “We write with the consent of the government to respectfully request the release of Ms. Montrage’s passport which was surrendered to Pretrial Services at the time of her arrest,” The request is in line with an earlier judgement that required that the passport be returned to her upon completion of her sentence. Ms. Montrage will be escorted by the United States Marshal Service, USMS from the BOP facility to the airport upon the completion of her incarceration and will fly out to Ghana without any domestic stops. Ms. Montrage self-surrendered on July 29, 2024 and is currently serving a year and a day at FDC Philadelphia. She was hit with a six-count indictment charging her for her role in a series of romance schemes and for laundering the proceeds of those scheme.
You will recall that sometime in year 2023 the prominent Ghanaian influencer was charged for her role in romance fraud schemes and was extradited from the United Kingdom to The United States to answer the charges. Mona Faiz Montrage is alleged to have received over $2 Million US Dollars in fraud proceeds and pretended to marry one victim to further the fraud scheme
According to the United States Attorney’s Officer in the southern district of New York, “Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Michael J. Driscoll, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced the unsealing of a six-count Indictment charging MONA FAIZ MONTRAGE for her role in a series of romance schemes and for laundering the proceeds of those schemes. MONTRAGE was arrested in the United Kingdom on November 10, 2022, and was extradited from the United Kingdom on May 12, 2023.”

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “As alleged, Mona Faiz Montrage was a member of a criminal conspiracy that specifically targeted older Americans through romance scams. Thanks to the efforts of our law enforcement partners, Montrage was arrested abroad and has been brought to the United States to face justice.”