She was flown home in handcuffs, two years after her conviction, to serve 10 years for allegedly stealing millions in public money, money meant for ordinary Ghanaians through loans, market relief, and support programmes.
Seven weeks later, the former Chief Executive Officer for the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu, walked out of court a free woman.
Here is how her case unfolded, from her days leading operations at MASLOC to Thursday’s dramatic acquittal, and the fight that’s already starting over what happens next.
2013–2017: MASLOC leadership
Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu served as Chief Executive Officer of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) from November 2013 to January 2017, and it was during this period that prosecutors say the offences at the centre of her case took place.
January 30, 2019: She is arraigned
She was arraigned before the High Court’s Financial Division on 78 counts. The charges ranged from conspiracy to steal and stealing, to causing financial loss to the state, improper payment of public funds, money laundering and breaches of the Public Procurement Act.
2019: She leaves Ghana and does not return
The court permitted Tamakloe-Attionu to travel abroad for a medical check-up while her trial was ongoing. She left for the United States and never returned to continue proceedings. The court eventually ruled her absence unjustified and continued with the trial without her.
April 16, 2024: Conviction in absentia
Five years after her trial began, Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe convicted Tamakloe-Attionu on multiple counts and sentenced her to 10 years’ imprisonment with hard labour. This verdict was given in her absence.
May 9, 2024: Appeal filed
Her lawyers, led by Enoch Deegbe of Freshfields Law Consult, filed a Notice of Appeal, raising nine grounds against the conviction.
July 2024: Ghana requests extradition
Ghana formally submitted an extradition request to the United States, beginning a process that would take more than a year and a half to resolve.
January 2026: US approves her surrender
A United States District Court in Nevada, where she had been held at the Nevada Southern Detention Centre, reviewed Ghana’s supporting legal documents and certified the extradition.
February 10, 2026: Written submissions ordered
While the extradition process was still ongoing, the Court of Appeal ordered her defence team to file a written submission in support of her appeal.
June 9, 2026: She finally returns to Ghana
The former MASLOC CEO arrived at the Accra International Airport aboard United Airlines flight UA996 from Washington Dulles. She was taken into custody by officials of the Ghana Police Service and Ghana Prisons Service to begin serving her 10-year sentence.
Her extradition was the first from the US to Ghana since 2009.
June 2026: Her lawyers press the appeal
With Tamakloe-Attionu now in Ghanaian custody, her defence team filed a comprehensive written submission before the Court of Appeal’s Criminal Division. They argued that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt and that the charge sheet was fundamentally defective.
The submission leaned on Supreme Court precedent, including Ernest Thompson & 5 Others and Osei v The Republic (No. 2), to argue that defective particulars of offence cannot be cured by evidence at trial.
The defence further argued the prosecution never proved she had dishonestly appropriated the GH¢500,000 at the heart of Count One, partly because it failed to call the actual beneficiaries of the sensitisation programmes she was accused of skipping.
July 30, 2026: The Court of Appeal acquits her
A three-member panel consisting of Justices Emmanuel Ankamah, Emmanuel Senyo Amedahe and Samuel Obeng-Diawuo unanimously acquitted and discharged Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu of all charges, quashing her conviction and 10-year sentence.
In a 94-page judgment, the court found that the trial judge had lost sight of the constitutional presumption of innocence, and that the prosecution was unable to prove the ingredients of the charges preferred against Madam Tamakloe Attionu.Barely seven weeks after her extradition to begin her life behind bars for the next decade, Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu walked free.
The state says it isn’t done
The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr Dominic Ayine announced plans to challenge the ruling, hours after the acquittal and discharge.
Addressing the media at a press briefing, Dr Ayine said he had directed the Director of Public Prosecutions to immediately file an appeal at the Supreme Court, alongside an application for a stay of execution of the Court of Appeal’s judgment pending that appeal.
Also, a statement issued by the Attorney-General’s office shortly after the ruling said it remained confident in the merits of the state’s case and hopeful the Supreme Court would overturn the Court of Appeal’s decision.
What it means for anti-corruption enforcement
Back in June, when the US sent Tamakloe-Attionu home, anti-corruption groups called it a big win.
It was the first time America had extradited anyone to Ghana in 16 years, and this proved that even someone convicted in their absence while abroad could still be brought back to face their sentence.
Thursday’s acquittal and discharge, however, changes the picture. The Court of Appeal didn’t just say there was reasonable doubt, it criticised how the whole case was handled.
The judges said the trial judge failed to adhere to the constitutional principle of an accused person’s innocence until proven guilty, and that the evidence simply wasn’t strong enough to convict her. That’s a serious statement for a case built on 78 charges and years of investigation.
It’s not just a question of whether she’s guilty; it’s a question of whether the state built its case properly in the first place.
Some legal experts see the acquittal itself as a good sign, saying it was proof that Ghana’s courts won’t automatically uphold a conviction just because a high-profile suspect has been dragged back into the country.
But for everyday Ghanaians who’ve watched public money vanish from state institutions for years, that’s discouraging.
Bringing a suspect home is one fight. Building a case that survives an appeal is another, and the entire nation is now waiting to see how the whole case ends with the state’s appeal at the Supreme Court.
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