Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States, Victor Smith has confirmed that former Chief Executive Officer of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Sedinam Tamakloe-Attionu, is currently being detained by U.S. authorities, marking a significant development in Ghana’s efforts to secure her extradition to serve a prison sentence at home.
According to the Ambassador, Tamakloe-Attionu is being held at the Nevada Southern Detention Center in Pahrump, Nevada, after being arrested by U.S. Marshals on January 6, 2026. The arrest followed an extradition request submitted by the Government of Ghana to U.S. authorities in July 2024, with the former MASLOC CEO now awaiting court proceedings under U.S. extradition protocols.
“My information is that she was detained by US Marshals on January 6th and has since been kept at that detention center. I am reliably informed that acting on an extradition request sent to the US Authorities sometime in July 2024, US Marshals arrested Mrs. Tamakloe-Attionu and placed her in detention to await her day in court.” he said
The confirmation comes days after Ghana’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, assured the public that the United States had given firm guarantees that it would not interfere with Ghana’s ongoing extradition processes involving Tamakloe-Attionu and former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta. The assurances were given during a high-level engagement between Mr. Ablakwa and the Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Accra, Rolf Olson, as part of broader discussions on judicial cooperation and bilateral relations.
The development reflects strengthened cooperation between Accra and Washington in the areas of justice, security, and law enforcement. In 2025 alone, Ghana extradited nine suspects to the United States to face prosecution for cybercrime and romance scam offences. Authorities in Accra say the gesture has been met with reciprocal commitments from the U.S. to facilitate Ghana’s own extradition requests involving high-profile suspects.
Tamakloe-Attionu was convicted in April 2024 alongside her former Chief Operating Officer, Daniel Axim, on 78 counts including causing financial loss to the state, stealing, conspiracy to steal, money laundering, and breaches of the Public Procurement Act. The offences were committed during her tenure as MASLOC CEO between 2013 and 2016. She was tried in absentia after leaving Ghana on court-approved medical travel and subsequently failing to return.
The High Court judgment detailed extensive financial irregularities, including the misappropriation of GH¢1.7 million allocated for a national sensitisation programme, of which only GH¢1,300 was used for its intended purpose. The court also found that funds earmarked for victims of the Kantamanso fire disaster were partially diverted, with only GH¢579,800 of GH¢1.4 million reaching beneficiaries. Additional findings covered inflated procurement of vehicles and Samsung mobile phones at prices above prevailing market rates, as well as unaccounted funds linked to Obaatampa Savings and Loans.
With her detention in Nevada, the formal extradition process under the Ghana–United States Extradition Treaty is now underway. If extradited, Tamakloe-Attionu will be returned to Ghana to serve a 10-year prison sentence with hard labour, closing a long-running case that has been closely watched as a test of Ghana’s anti-corruption enforcement and international judicial cooperation.
This also gives the impression that the fugitive former Finance Minister of Ghana, Ken Ofori-Atta, could face a similar fate, with extradition to Ghana to face the full rigors of the law pending his immigration trial, after ICE detained him on January 7, 2026.
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