Paraguayan prosecutors have expanded accusations against former President Santiago Peña, alleging he led a criminal organization designed to protect Ueno Bank and facilitate financial fraud.
According to a document from the Public Ministry accessed by AFP, Peña allegedly acted as the head of a hierarchical structure embedded within the state apparatus.
Prosecutors claim he used his position in the Presidency to maintain periodic clandestine meetings with Federico Vázquez, the president of the Grupo Vázquez—the holding company that controls Ueno Bank—to issue public and institutional directives intended to prevent the bank from undergoing intervention.
The expanded charges include criminal association, alongside existing allegations of breach of trust and administration for personal gain. Investigators claim that during these activities, $200,000 in cash was delivered inside the official presidential residence, according to Globo.
The Public Ministry has also expanded its indictment to include five directors of the Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP). Prosecutors allege these officials were part of the organized structure, with specific roles distributed to favor financial interests related to Ueno Bank.
On Friday, the Public Ministry arrested three former members of the Central Bank’s board of directors. According to local press orders, these individuals allegedly knew about the bank’s financial irregularities since December 2025 but failed to take corrective measures, allowing the institution to continue collecting deposits. These arrests followed the previous detention of the BCP’s bank superintendent, Holger Insfrán.
The legal proceedings are currently divided into two parallel investigations:
- One focuses on the directors of Ueno Bank, ten of whom are currently imprisoned.
- The other targets Peña and the former president of the BCP, Carlos Carvallo, both of whom are in preventive detention. Carvallo, who served as president of the predecessor to Ueno Bank before being appointed by Peña to lead the BCP in 2023, faces charges of breach of trust and producing false public documents.
The criminal investigation follows the collapse of Ueno Bank, a digital institution that faced intervention by the BCP on November 3 due to severe solvency issues. The bank’s failure left hundreds of thousands of customers without access to their deposits.
While the BCP reported that it has used a guarantee fund to return the full savings of 80% of the 1.8 million affected depositors, much of the money remains missing, including more than $800 million in public funds.
Prosecutor Francisco Cabrera stated in a press conference that several countries have already confirmed the presence of assets linked to the bank and that measures are being taken to request the freezing of these values.
While Cabrera did not specify the nations involved, the Public Ministry has been engaged in informal negotiations with the United States, Luxembourg, and Argentina to track and recover funds. Cabrera noted he held a preliminary meeting with prosecutors from Luxembourg to arrange details for a potential cooperation request.
The fallout from the bank’s insolvency has sparked significant public outcry. "He has to be judged normally, like any Paraguayan," told AFP Lisa Garay, a vendor in Assunção.