Ex-MASLOC CEO Sedina Tamakloe jailed 10 years
Sedinam Tamakloe-Attionu, the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), has been sentenced in absentia to ten years’ imprisonment with hard labor for willfully causing financial loss to the state.
Her accomplice, Daniel Axim, also a former Chief Operating Officer (COO) of MASLOC, was sentenced to five years in hard labor.
They were charged with stealing GH¢3.19 million while at MASLOC and causing a financial loss of GH¢1.97 million to the state.
Additionally, they were accused of making unauthorized commitments resulting in financial obligations for the government totaling GH₵61.74 million.
Tamakloe-Attionu absconded during the trial after the High Court, presided over by Justice Mrs. Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe, granted her plea to seek medical attention abroad.
Despite denying charges of conspiring to cause financial loss to the state, conspiring to steal, stealing over GH₵1.7m, money laundering, improper payment, and contravening public procurement laws, they were found culpable after the trial.
The Court of Appeal Judge, acting also as a High Court Judge, passed judgment considering that the two convicts stole GH₵1.7 million, part of an amount designated for a sensitization exercise. They also misappropriated funds intended for fire victims of Kantamanto traders and purchased vehicles and mobile phones for MASLOC, exceeding market prices, among other offenses.
To deter “professional criminals who engage in professional crime,” as described by the judge, prosecution was directed to undertake forfeiture proceedings against Tamakloe-Attionu, the main culprit.
The prosecution earlier informed the court that in 2017, the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) conducted investigations into fraudulent disbursements of MASLOC funds involving the first and second accused persons.
These investigations revealed that in June 2014, MASLOC invested GH₵150,000 in Obaatanpa Micro-Finance Company Limited, located at Ejura in the Ashanti Region.
Subsequently, Tamakloe-Attionu offered Obaatanpa an additional investment of GH¢500,000.
As a result, a MASLOC Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) cheque dated July 24, 2014, in the sum of GH¢500,000, was drawn in favor of Obaatanpa.
After Obaatanpa received the MASLOC cheque, Tamakloe-Attionu demanded a 24% interest rate on the investment amount, leading Obaatanpa to return the amount to MASLOC.
Investigations showed that MASLOC had no record of the amount returned, and Tamakloe-Attionu was found to have appropriated the GH₵500,000.
