Sedina Tamakloe arrives in Ghana to face justice as lawyers argue prosecution failed to prove case in an appeal application

A former Chief Executive Officer of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Sedina Christine Tamakloe Attionu, convicted on multiple counts of financial crime by the Accra High Court, landed in Ghana on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, and has been taken into custody.

Her return comes as her lawyers have filed a comprehensive written submission before the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, Accra, urging the appellate court to set aside her conviction and acquit her on all charges, arguing that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt and that the charge sheet on which she was convicted is fundamentally defective.

Background of the case

Mrs Tamakloe Attionu, who served as MASLOC CEO from November 2013 to January 2017, was arraigned before the High Court Financial Division on January 30, 2019 on 78 counts spanning conspiracy to steal, stealing, causing financial loss to the State, causing loss to public property, improper payment of public funds, unauthorised commitment resulting in financial obligation to the Government, money laundering and breach of the Public Procurement Act.

On April 16, 2024, the trial court, presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, delivered its judgment, convicting her on some of the counts.

Her lawyers, led by Enoch Deegbe Esq. of Freshfields Law Consult, filed a Notice of Appeal on May 9, 2024, raising nine grounds of appeal. In a written submission filed pursuant to a court order dated 10th February 2026, the defence has laid out a detailed legal case for her acquittal.

Defective charge sheet

Central to the appeal is the argument that the charge sheet used to prosecute her is "incurably defective" and violates Article 19(2)(d) of the 1992 Constitution, which guarantees every accused person the right to be informed in detail of the nature of the offence charged.

The defence argues that the particulars of offence in most counts merely repeat the statutory definition of the offence without specifying the actual acts or omissions allegedly committed by the appellant.

The submission cites a line of Ghanaian Supreme Court and Court of Appeal decisions, including Ernest Thompson & 5 Others, Criminal Appeal No. J3/05/2020, and Osei v The Republic (No. 2) (1971) GLR 449, which established that defective particulars of offence are fatal to a conviction and cannot be cured by evidence.

Evidential concerns

On the substantive charges of stealing, the defence argues the prosecution called only seven witnesses, none of whom were the beneficiaries of the sensitisation programmes allegedly not carried out, nor regional officers of MASLOC from the affected areas. The submission contends that the failure to call these material witnesses was fatal to the prosecution's case.

Regarding the GH¢500,000 at the heart of Count One, the most prominent charge, the defence argues the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Mrs Tamakloe Attionu dishonestly appropriated the sum. It notes that the appellant denied authorship of a key letter of acknowledgment and submits that the trial judge erred in shifting the burden to her to disprove the letter, rather than requiring the prosecution to establish its authenticity, including through forensic examination.

Vehicle procurement and ex-gratia payments

On the vehicle procurement charges, the defence points to cross-examination evidence establishing that not a single cedi had been paid by MASLOC at the time the appellant left office in January 2017, that the contract price was subsequently renegotiated by the incoming management, and that payments were only made in 2018, well after her departure. The submission argues it was therefore unreasonable for the trial court to convict her for causing financial loss to the State in relation to a transaction whose financial consequences materialised entirely after she had exited office.

On the ex-gratia payments, evidence from the prosecution's own witness, the Head of Finance of MASLOC, confirmed during cross-examination that the payments were processed by his office, that they were based on proper documentation from the Office of the President and the Human Resource department, and that he personally found nothing untoward in the documents before authorising payment.

The appeal, Case No. CR 904/2017, is currently before the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, Accra. The Republic is the respondent. A hearing date is expected to be fixed in due course.

Extradition from the United States

The United States extradited Mrs Tamakloe Attionu to Ghana following her conviction on more than 70 corruption-related charges involving the embezzlement of over six million dollars in public funds. The American Embassy in Accra announced the extradition on Tuesday, June 9, 2026.

The extradition is the first from the United States to Ghana since 2009, ending a 16-year gap in such transfers between the two countries.

Mrs Tamakloe Attionu left Ghana in 2019 after obtaining permission from the court to travel abroad for a medical check-up but did not return to continue with her trial.

In April 2024, she was convicted and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment with hard labour on multiple charges, including causing financial loss to the state, stealing, conspiracy, money laundering and procurement-related offences. The conviction covered 72 counts, including 25 counts of stealing, nine counts of conspiracy to steal, 20 counts of wilfully causing financial loss to the state, 11 counts of conspiracy to cause financial loss to the state, three counts of causing loss to public property and four counts of money laundering. The offences were committed between 2013 and 2016.

Arrest and extradition process

Ghana's Ambassador to the United States, Mr Victor Smith, confirmed on January 15, 2026 that Mrs Tamakloe Attionu had been arrested by US Marshals on January 6, 2026. He said she was being held at the Nevada Southern Detention Centre in Pahrump, Nevada.

A United States District Court in Nevada later certified her extradition, ruling that the extradition treaty between the United States and Ghana remained valid and enforceable and that there was probable cause to believe she had committed the offences for which Ghana requested her return.

Her co-accused, Daniel Axim, a former Chief Operating Officer of MASLOC, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment with hard labour after being convicted of causing a financial loss of GH¢90 million to the state.

The American Embassy described the extradition as an example of cooperation between law enforcement authorities in Ghana and the United States and said it reflected a shared effort to uphold accountability.