US Marshals detain Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu over Ghana extradition request

Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States, Victor Emmanuel Smith, has confirmed the arrest and detention of former Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) Chief Executive Officer, Mrs Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu, by US authorities.

In a statement dated Thursday, 15 January 2026, the ambassador disclosed that Mrs Tamakloe-Attionu is currently being held at the Nevada Southern Detention Center in Pahrump, Nevada.

“I can today confirm that Mrs Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu is being detained at the Nevada Southern Detention Center,” the statement said.

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According to Mr Smith, the former MASLOC boss was arrested by US Marshals on 6 January 2026 and has remained in custody since that date.

“My information is that she was detained by US Marshals on January 6 and has since been kept at that detention centre,” the ambassador stated.

Mrs Tamakloe-Attionu’s legal troubles stem from actions taken during her tenure at MASLOC between 2013 and 2016, when she was accused of misappropriating funds meant for microcredit and enterprise support programmes.

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In April 2024, an Accra High Court convicted her in absentia on seventy-eight (78) counts, including causing financial loss to the State of approximately GH¢90 million, theft, conspiracy to steal, money laundering and breaches of the Public Procurement Act. Her co-accused, former MASLOC Chief Operating Officer Daniel Axim, was also convicted and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment with hard labour.

The trial, which began in 2019, heard testimony from several witnesses and detailed how public funds were disbursed without proper authorisation or accountability. The court cited multiple transactions involving loans and payments that were either poorly documented, improperly accounted for or diverted from their intended purposes.

Although the court imposed a ten-year custodial sentence with hard labour, Mrs Tamakloe-Attionu did not begin serving her term. She absconded during the proceedings after being granted permission to travel abroad for medical treatment and failed to return to Ghana to face sentencing.

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Following her absence, the judiciary issued a formal arrest warrant, prompting the Government of Ghana to initiate extradition proceedings to secure her return. For more than a year, authorities pursued her extradition from the United States and other jurisdictions.