Former Chief Executive Officer of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Sedina Christine Tamakloe Attionu, has returned to Ghana and is now in custody following her extradition from the United States, as her legal team pursues an appeal seeking to overturn her conviction on multiple financial crime charges.
Mrs Tamakloe Attionu arrived in Ghana on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, after being extradited by US authorities. Her return comes amid an ongoing legal challenge before the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division in Accra, where her lawyers are seeking to have her conviction quashed and all charges dismissed.
Her defence team, led by Enoch Deegbe of Freshfields Law Consult, has filed a detailed written submission arguing that the prosecution failed to establish its case beyond reasonable doubt and that the charge sheet upon which she was convicted was fundamentally defective.
Mrs Tamakloe Attionu, who served as MASLOC Chief Executive from November 2013 to January 2017, was charged before the Financial Division of the Accra High Court on January 30, 2019, on 78 counts, including conspiracy to steal, stealing, causing financial loss to the state, causing loss to public property, improper payment of public funds, unauthorised commitments resulting in financial obligations to government, money laundering and breaches of the Public Procurement Act.
On April 16, 2024, the trial court, presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, convicted her on several counts and subsequently sentenced her to 10 years’ imprisonment with hard labour.
Her appeal, filed on May 9, 2024, challenges both the legal foundation of the charges and the evidential basis of the conviction.
A key pillar of the appeal is the argument that the charge sheet violated Article 19(2)(d) of the 1992 Constitution, which guarantees an accused person the right to be informed in detail of the nature of the charges against them.
According to the defence, the particulars contained in many of the charges merely reproduced statutory definitions without setting out the specific acts or omissions allegedly committed by the appellant.
The legal team cites several judicial precedents, including the case of Ernest Thompson and Others and Osei v Republic, to argue that defective particulars of offence are fatal to a conviction and cannot subsequently be cured by evidence presented during trial.
The defence also challenges the sufficiency of the prosecution’s evidence, particularly in relation to the stealing charges.
According to the appeal submissions, the prosecution called only seven witnesses and failed to present testimony from beneficiaries of the sensitisation programmes that were allegedly not undertaken, or from MASLOC regional officers in the affected areas.
The lawyers contend that the absence of these material witnesses weakened the prosecution’s case and left significant evidential gaps.
Regarding the GH¢500,000 that formed the basis of the principal stealing charge, the defence argues that prosecutors failed to prove that Mrs Tamakloe Attionu dishonestly appropriated the funds.
The appeal further contends that the trial court improperly shifted the burden of proof to the accused after she denied authorship of a key acknowledgment letter, instead of requiring the prosecution to establish the authenticity of the document through appropriate evidence, including forensic examination.
On charges related to vehicle procurement, the defence points to evidence showing that no payments had been made by MASLOC before Mrs Tamakloe Attionu left office in January 2017.
According to the appeal, the contract was subsequently renegotiated by a new management team, with payments only being made in 2018. The defence therefore argues that it was unreasonable to hold her criminally liable for financial consequences that materialised after her departure from office.
The appeal also cites testimony from MASLOC’s Head of Finance regarding ex-gratia payments. According to the defence, the witness confirmed that the payments were processed through the finance department based on documentation received from the Office of the President and the Human Resource Department and that he found no irregularities in the supporting documents before authorising payment.
Mrs Tamakloe Attionu left Ghana in 2019 after obtaining permission from the court to travel abroad for medical treatment but failed to return to continue standing trial.
Her extradition marks the first transfer of a fugitive from the United States to Ghana since 2009.
The process began after her arrest by US Marshals on January 6, 2026. Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States, Victor Smith, later confirmed that she was being held at the Nevada Southern Detention Centre in Pahrump, Nevada.
A US District Court subsequently certified her extradition, ruling that the extradition treaty between Ghana and the United States remained valid and that sufficient grounds existed for her return to face the consequences of her conviction.
The US Embassy in Accra announced her extradition on Tuesday, describing it as a demonstration of the strong cooperation between Ghanaian and American law enforcement agencies in promoting accountability and the rule of law.
Mrs Tamakloe Attionu’s co-accused, Daniel Axim, a former Chief Operating Officer of MASLOC, was previously sentenced to five years’ imprisonment with hard labour after being convicted of causing financial loss to the state.
The appeal remains pending before the Court of Appeal, which is expected to set a hearing date in the coming weeks. The outcome could determine whether Mrs Tamakloe Attionu’s conviction is upheld or overturned.
