Read how former MASLOC CEO Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu‘s conviction was overturned by Court of Appeal

Former Chief Executive Officer of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Sedina Christine Tamakloe-Attionu, has been acquitted and discharged by the Court of Appeal, which overturned her 2024 High Court conviction and 10-year prison sentence.

In a unanimous decision delivered on Thursday, July 30, 2026, the Court of Appeal ruled that the prosecution failed to prove the charges against her beyond reasonable doubt. The court also held that the trial judge failed to uphold the constitutional principle of the presumption of innocence.

According to reports Justice Agbenorsi and Joselyn Kafui Nyadzi, the appellate court quashed both the conviction and the sentence imposed by the High Court.

In its 94-page judgment, the court criticised the prosecution’s handling of the case and concluded that the evidence presented did not meet the required legal standard for a criminal conviction. The court’s detailed reasoning is expected to be released later in the day.

Background

Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu served as MASLOC CEO from November 2013 to January 2017. She was arraigned before the High Court’s Financial Division on January 30, 2019, on 78 counts, including conspiracy to steal, stealing, causing financial loss to the state, causing loss to public property, improper payment of public funds, unauthorised commitments resulting in financial obligations to the government, money laundering, and breaches of the Public Procurement Act. The alleged offences were said to have occurred between 2013 and 2016.

She left Ghana in 2019 after obtaining the court’s permission to travel abroad for medical treatment but did not return to continue standing trial. She was subsequently tried and convicted in absentia on multiple financial crime charges.

On June 9, 2026, she was extradited from the United States to Ghana—the first extradition between the two countries since 2009—to begin serving her sentence. Upon her arrival, she was taken into custody.

Her return followed an appeal filed by her legal team, who argued that the prosecution had failed to establish its case beyond reasonable doubt and that the charge sheet on which she had been convicted was fundamentally defective. The Court of Appeal has now upheld those arguments, resulting in her acquittal and discharge.