The Court of Appeal has acquitted and discharged former Chief Executive Officer of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre, MASLOC, Mrs Sedina Christine Tamakloe Attionu, overturning her earlier 10-year prison sentence.
In a ruling delivered today, the three-member panel of the appellate court held that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt and that the evidence presented at the High Court was insufficient to sustain the conviction. The court consequently set aside both the conviction and the sentence imposed by the High Court.
The decision brings a dramatic twist to one of Ghana’s most high-profile corruption trials.
BACKGROUND
Sedina Tamakloe Attionu served as CEO of MASLOC from November 2013 to January 2017. MASLOC is a state agency mandated to provide low-interest loans to small and medium-scale enterprises.
In January 2019, the Office of the Attorney-General arraigned her together with former Operations Manager Daniel Axim on 78 counts including conspiracy to steal, stealing, causing financial loss to the State, causing loss to public property, improper payment of public funds, unauthorized commitment resulting in financial obligation for government, money laundering and contravention of the Public Procurement Act.
According to the prosecution, their actions led to the loss of about GH¢93 million to the State. The charges included:
– Stealing of GH¢3.1 million,
– Wilfully causing financial loss of GH¢1.9 million,
– Unauthorized commitment of GH¢61.7 million,
– Loss to public property of GH¢22.1 million,
– Improper payment of GH¢273,743 and
– Money laundering of GH¢3.7 million.
The prosecution alleged she directly stole funds, pocketed monies meant for outreach, training and disaster relief programs, bought cars and phones at inflated prices, and made unearned payments to herself and her co-accused.
She was granted permission by the High Court in February 2021 to travel to the United States for medical treatment but failed to return. On February 24, 2023, Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, sitting as an additional High Court Judge, declared her a fugitive and ordered trial in absentia.
On April 16, 2024, she was convicted in absentia on more than 70 counts and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in hard labour. The sentences were 10 years for stealing, 3 years for causing financial loss, 2 years for causing loss to public property, 3 years for money laundering among others, to run concurrently, with an additional fine of GH¢78,000. Her co-accused Daniel Axim was sentenced to 5 years.
After her conviction, Ghana filed a formal extradition request. She was arrested by US Marshals on January 6, 2026, at the Nevada Southern Detention Center. A US District Court in Nevada certified her extradition and on June 9, 2026, the United States extradited her to Ghana in what the US Embassy described as the first extradition from the US to Ghana since 2009 for “embezzling more than $6 million in taxpayer funds.”
Before her return, her lawyers led by Enoch Deegbe Esq. of Freshfields Law Consult had filed a Notice of Appeal on May 9, 2024 and a detailed written submission on February 10, 2026, arguing that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt and that the charge sheet was defective.
Daniel Axim, her co-accused, was granted bail of GH¢500,000 pending appeal by a five-member Supreme Court panel on January 14, 2026.
In today’s ruling, the Court of Appeal upheld those arguments by the defence, holding that the prosecution’s evidence was insufficient, thereby acquitting and discharging Mrs Attionu. Alexander Afriyie, supervising editor, ghanacrimereport.com and ghanatalk.com