The Court of Appeal has acquitted and discharged former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Sedina Christine Tamakloe Attionu overturning her 2022 High Court conviction and 10 year prison sentence.
In a 94 page judgement, the appellate court ruled that the prosecution failed to prove the charges against her beyond reasonable doubt.
The court held that the trial judge lost sight of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, and also faulted the manner in which the prosecution handled the case.
Tamakloe Attionu served as MASLOC CEO from November 2013 to January 2017. She 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.
The offences were alleged to have been committed between 2013 and 2016.
In 2022, she was convicted in absentia and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment with hard labour. She had left Ghana in 2019 after obtaining court permission to travel abroad for a medical check up but did not return to continue with her trial.
Tamakloe Attionu was extradited from the United States to Ghana on June 9, 2026: the first such extradition between the two countries since 2009. She landed in Ghana on Tuesday, June 9, 2026 and was taken into custody.
Following her return, her lawyers filed a written submission before the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, Accra, urging the court to set aside her conviction and acquit her on all charges. They argued that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt and that the charge sheet on which she was convicted was fundamentally defective.
The Court of Appeal agreed, and with today’s Thursday, July 30, 2026 ruling she is now free of all charges and convictions related to the case.
