Monette Mona Mejia (Screengrab via Newsmax, mug shot via Harris County Sherif’s Office)
A 46-year-old woman in Texas who was once featured in Business Insider after she made more than $700,000 from her at-home Poshmark resale store was arrested last week for allegedly swindling multiple local retail stores out of tens of thousands of dollars in an elaborate scam based on a made-up reality television show.
Monette “Mona” Mejia was taken into custody last week and charged with theft of between $30,000 and $150,000 based on the amount of cash and merchandise she allegedly received in the course of her fraudulent ploy, court records show.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the investigation into Mejia began when Kenneth and Loretta Cuadra, who own the First Dibs resale clothing and accessories store in Harris County filed a complaint against Mejia on Sept. 18, 2023.
The Cuadras said that in December 2022, Mejia contacted them about participating in a “fashion reality show” on TLC in which Mejia claimed she had been asked to star, claiming the show would be featured on “Good Morning America.”
Mejia in January 2023 went to First Dibs and told the Cuadras that she was looking for a “consignment store to shop at for the TLC show,” per the affidavit. Mejia asked the Cuadras if they would be interested in having their store featured on the show.
While in discussions over the terms of a proposed deal, Mejia allegedly sent the Cuadras an email stating that TLC was giving her two days to choose a consignment store where the show would film, which police described as “a calculated move to put pressure on the Cuadras to buy into (Mejia’s) scam plan.”
Based on the perceived exposure the store would get through the show, the Cuadras offered Mejia $8,000 in store credit and $2,000 in cash to close the deal. Mejia accepted the deal on Feb. 25, 2023, and said TLC would be in touch with them shortly.
Mejia in early March contacted the Cuadras and requested discounts on a number of “good items” from their store, saying that TLC was coming to film her live in a few days. A discounted inventory valued at more than $46,000 was delivered to the Mejias’ residence within a week. The list of items delivered included Christian Louboutin shoes, Gucci and Chanel purses, and other designer attire.
A few days later, a person claiming to be a “communications associate” with TLC allegedly emailed the Cuadras with the details about filming the reality show, including prospective filming dates and their compensation.
After canceling at least one meeting that was supposed to include the Cuadras and TLC, Mejias said the network had approved the Cuadras for 4-5 episodes of the show, but said that to “seal the deal,” the Cuadras “were to pay a total of $100,000 to TLC.” When they refused, Mejias allegedly came back and said she got the network down to $20,000. The Cuadras allegedly sent multiple payments via Zelle totaling close to $7,000.
But when no cameras came to the Cuadras’ store, they began to suspect something was amiss. That’s when Mejia allegedly staged a fake call with the network in front of the Cuadras.
“The Mejias began noticing that the Cuadras were becoming weary of the TLC show stories so on 05/13/2023, while visiting the Cuadras, Mona Mejia told Victor Mejia, in the presence of the Cuadras, that TLC just paid her a large sum of money for the show,” the affidavit states. “The incident, which was captured on camera, showed Mejia supposedly overjoyed by the news and apparently crying. She was joined in celebrating the ‘news’ by (her husband) Victor Mejia and the Cuadras.”
But after “several failed attempts to begin recordings for the TLC Resellers Reality Show,” the Cuadras became suspicious. When they questioned Mejia about it, they said she “became super defensive about the deal,” so they reached out directly to TLC.
In August 2023, an investigator with Warner Bros. Global Security reached out to the Cuadras and told them that Mejia had “no affiliation with TLC nor any pending shows.”
When confronted with the statements from Warner Bros., Mejia allegedly sent Loretta Cuadra a text apologizing and telling the other woman that she had recently “lost so much money.”
In November 2023, police said three other female clothing retailers in the area claimed that Mejia “had also scammed them using the same TLC reality TV show story.”
All of the funds that were transferred via Zelle were linked to a phone number which police called in December 2023 and which Mejia allegedly answered. After being advised on the investigation into her conduct, Mejia allegedly claimed that she was the one who had been scammed.
Mejia said that someone she “did not know” had offered her a TV show and she decided to “share” that information with several “friends of mine online,” police wrote.
Police said the Cuadras ended up giving Mejias $6,773 in money for this scheme and $38,715 in merchandise, none of which had been returned, “even when the scam was found out.”
Mejia was booked into the Harris County Jail and released after posting bond of $10,000. It was not clear as of Tuesday whether Mejia had retained an attorney.
