Former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has been remanded in the custody of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following a closed-door immigration hearing on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, pending further proceedings on his bail application.
The hearing, conducted in private at the request of his legal team, focused on whether Mr Ofori-Atta should be granted bail. State attorneys opposed the request, citing Ghana’s extradition request for the former minister. Judge David A. Gardey declined to make an immediate determination on the extradition claim, noting that no documentary evidence had been presented to support it, and directed the federal government to submit any evidence by February 19. The case has been adjourned to Thursday, April 27, at 1 p.m., when the tribunal will hear the bail application and any documents submitted.
Mr Ofori-Atta, who served as Ghana’s Finance Minister from 2017 to 2023, has been in the United States since January 2025, seeking medical treatment for prostate cancer. He underwent a radical prostatectomy at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, on June 13, 2025, following tests that showed disease progression, and has also been managing post-COVID multi-system inflammatory syndrome, diagnosed in February 2021.
His lawyers, Minkah-Premo, Osei-Bonsu, Bruce-Cathline & Partners (MPOBB), have stated that Mr Ofori-Atta has a pending petition for adjustment of status, a legal process that allows him to remain in the US beyond his visa’s validity. They stressed he is cooperating with ICE and is “a law-abiding person.”
Official records indicate Mr Ofori-Atta is being held at the Caroline Detention Facility in Bowling Green, Virginia. The development has drawn attention in Ghana, coming months after the Office of the Special Prosecutor charged him and others with corruption-related offences, a case currently at the case management conference stage.
