Sedina Tamakloe Attionu
The runaway former Chief Executive Officer of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Sedina Tamakloe Attionu and Operations Manager, Daniel Axim, have been sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison for causing financial loss to the state.
The two were dragged before the court in 2019 charged with a total of 78 charges of causing a total of GHc93,044,134.66 financial loos to the state.
They were also charged for conspiracy to steal, stealing, money laundering while Madam Attionu was separately charged for causing loss to public property, unauthorised commitment resulting in financial obligation for government, and contravention of the Public Procurement Act.
The two were found guilty of the all the 78 charges levelled against them after the court presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, a Justice of the Court of Appeal sitting as an additional High Court Judge, held that the prosecution has led sufficient evidence against the convicts who could not put up a reasonable defence.
Madam Attionu is currently on the run after she failed to return the country having been granted leave by the court to seek medical attention in the United States.
The court had declared her a fugitive and conducted the trial in her absence and subsequently jailed in her in absentia.
The offences for which they were convicted and jailed include the allegedly stealing a total amount of GHc3,198,280 whiles at MASLOC and willfully causing a GHc1,973,780 financial loss to the state.
Again, Madam Attionu and her accomplice according to the facts while in charge of MASLOC made unauthorized commitments resulting in financial obligations for the government to the tune of GHc61,735,832.50.
The charges against the two also include GHc22,158,118.85 loss to public property and improper payment of GHc273,743.66 as well as money laundering of GHc3,704,380 whiles in charge.
Tue court has ordered the prosecution to undertake forfeiture proceedings against the convicts particularly Madam Attionu.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak