Abu Trica, Hajia4Reall, and the Pattern Ghana’s Celebrity Culture Keeps Producing

Two Ghanaian public figures with combined social media followings in the millions have been processed through the United States federal justice system for romance scam fraud in the space of three years. One has served her sentence and returned home.

The other boarded Delta Air Lines Flight DL157 out of Accra on July 9, 2026, and is now facing up to 20 years.

This is not a coincidence. It is a pattern, and it has not stopped at two.

Hajia4Reall: The First Case

Mona Faiz Montrage built an Instagram following of more than 3.4 million people under the name Hajia4Reall. The account documented a lifestyle of wealth, travel, and social access. She was extradited from the United Kingdom to the United States in May 2023, charged with conspiracy to receive stolen money connected to a West Africa-based romance scam operation that defrauded more than $2 million from vulnerable older Americans.

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She pleaded guilty in February 2024. On June 28, 2024, U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken sentenced her to one year and one day in prison, ordered her to forfeit $216,475, and directed her to pay $1,387,458 in restitution to victims. She had personally received funds from approximately 40 people who believed they were in real romantic relationships and sent money based on fabricated emergencies and false narratives.

She was released in May 2025 and returned to Ghana. By June 2026, she had appeared on the Department of Homeland Security’s “Arrested Worst of the Worst” portal, a deportation-linked registry of foreign nationals with serious criminal convictions.

Abu Trica: The Second Extradition

Frederick Kumi, known as Abu Trica, was from Swedru in the Central Region. His Instagram account, which had accumulated more than 100,000 followers, ran on the same aesthetic as Hajia4Reall’s: cars, cash, and the visual vocabulary of wealth that the Ghanaian influencer economy has built its most visible tier on.

US prosecutors allege that Kumi was part of a criminal network that used artificial intelligence tools to create fake identities, build emotional relationships with elderly Americans through social media and dating platforms, and extract money under false pretences. Nine specific transactions have been linked to him by prosecutors, ranging from $422 to a single transfer of $4.1 million. The total value of the alleged scheme exceeds $8 million.

He was arrested in Ghana on December 11, 2025, and extradited on July 9, 2026. He faces charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. His lawyer, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, raised concerns about access to legal counsel being denied during the process. There is a disputed detail about his age: his lawyer says 28, US prosecutors say 31.

Four Names, Not Two

Hajia4Reall and Abu Trica are the two most high-profile names in this pattern, but they are not the only ones. At least four popular Ghanaians have been arrested or extradited in connection with romance scams targeting American victims. The two whose names are most recognisable in the entertainment space are the two whose cases generated the most public coverage, but the broader network they were allegedly connected to was larger than either individual.

What the Pattern Says

Both Hajia4Reall and Abu Trica built public profiles on the display of wealth. Both were ultimately alleged to have sourced a significant portion of that wealth from elderly Americans who were deceived into believing they were in loving relationships. Both operated on platforms that reward the appearance of prosperity without asking where it comes from.

The question of what Ghana’s entertainment and influencer culture does about this is not a simple one. Most people who display wealth on social media are not running fraud operations. But the specific overlap, between a high-profile public presence, a documented lavish lifestyle, and US federal indictments for romance scam fraud, has now occurred enough times in the Ghanaian public sphere that calling it a pattern is accurate and calling it a coincidence is not.