Ghana’s former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, who faces numerous corruption charges at home, has been detained by United States immigration authorities.
- Ken Ofori-Atta, Ghana’s ex-Finance Minister, faces detention by U.S. immigration authorities over his visa status.
- Ofori-Atta, under medical care in the US since 2025, seeks to resolve the visa issue through legal assistance.
- The charges in Ghana involve allegations of corruption from his service between 2017 and 2024.
- An extradition request from Ghana is pending, yet his detention relates solely to immigration matters.
Ghana’s former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, who faces numerous corruption charges at home, has been detained by United States immigration authorities over issues related to his stay in the country, his lawyers say.
Ken Ofori-Atta has been held by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement since Jan. 6. He had previously applied to have the visa extended, and his US lawyers were working on resolving the matter.
The detention is connected to the status of his current immigration paperwork, including an ongoing application to adjust his visa so he can remain in the U.S. while seeking medical treatment, according to a BBC report.
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Ofori-Atta left Ghana in 2025 due to health reasons and has been residing in the United States since then. His lawyers insist the former minister is “law-abiding” and cooperating fully with U.S. authorities, expecting the matter to be resolved quickly.
Charges at Home
In Ghana, prosecutors have charged him with dozens of corruption and procurement-related offences linked to his time in office from January 2017 to February 2024.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor formally transmitted an extradition request to Ghana’s Foreign Ministry in December 2025. However, legal experts have clarified that his current detention concerns his immigration status, rather than the extradition itself.
Ghana and the United States maintain generally warm relations, having worked together on various regional security and repatriation efforts, despite past diplomatic disagreements.
