A former Chief Executive Officer of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu, has been taken into custody in the United States, marking a significant development in her long-running legal saga triggered by financial improprieties during her tenure.
In a statement dated January 15 and signed by Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States, Victor Smith, it was confirmed that Tamakloe-Attionu was arrested by the United States Marshals Service on January 6, 2026.
She is currently being detained at the Southern Nevada Detention Centre in Pahrump, pending court proceedings.
Tamakloe-Attionu was convicted in absentia by an Accra High Court in April 2024 and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for a series of offenses committed between 2013 and 2016.
Her former deputy, Daniel Axim, who served as Chief Operating Officer at MASLOC, was also convicted and handed a five-year prison term with hard labour for his role in causing financial loss to the state amounting to GH¢90 million.
The former MASLOC boss had absconded while on court-approved travel abroad for medical treatment and failed to return to Ghana to face trial.
Investigations by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), which began in 2017, uncovered widespread irregularities involving the fraudulent disbursement of public funds under her administration.
Prosecutors accused Tamakloe-Attionu of embezzling GH¢3.19 million and deliberately causing a further financial loss of GH¢1.97 million to the state.
She was also charged with making unauthorised financial commitments that exposed the government to liabilities totalling GH¢61.74 million.
Details from court proceedings have outlined the specific financial transactions that formed the basis of her conviction on 78 counts, including embezzlement, wilfully causing financial loss to the state, conspiracy, money laundering, and breaches of public procurement laws.
Among the key infractions, Tamakloe-Attionu appropriated GH¢500,000 of MASLOC funds for personal use after the money was returned by Obaatanpa Micro-Finance Company Limited, which had refused to pay a 24% interest rate on a loan; she withdrew GH¢1.816 million in tranches, despite the MASLOC board approving only GH¢1.706 million for a nationwide sensitisation exercise, with evidence showing that just GH¢1,300 was spent on refreshments for a limited number of beneficiaries in the Volta, Greater Accra, and Brong-Ahafo regions, and no programmes held in the remaining regions; out of GH¢1,465,035 allocated to victims of the 2013 Kantamanto Market fire disaster, only GH¢579,800 was disbursed, leaving a significant portion unaccounted for; without approval from the Public Procurement Authority, she oversaw the purchase of 150 Chevy Aveo saloon cars at GH¢74,495 each (versus market price of GH¢47,346.93), 100 Chevy Sparklite vehicles at GH¢65,095 each (versus GH¢35,918.37), and 33-seater Isuzu buses at GH¢445,560 each—all at costs far above prevailing market rates; in 2016, under the PINCO Project Market Survey, 200 Samsung B310 dual-SIM mobile phones were procured at a total cost of GH¢93,412, despite their market value being only GH¢24,400; and Tamakloe-Attionu approved ex-gratia payments of GH¢135,592.33 for herself and GH¢82,218.76 for her deputy, as well as payments in lieu of leave amounting to GH¢28,445.94 for herself and GH¢27,486.62 for her deputy.
These acts, which involved collaboration with her co-accused, Daniel Axim, was argued by prosecutors as a pattern of abuse of office and disregard for public financial regulations, ultimately leading to her decade-long sentence.
She is expected to make an appearance in a US court where a request for extradition filed by the government of Ghana in 2024 will be determined.