The General Prosecutor's Office of Paraguay has carried out a series of searches at the homes of the former President of the Republic, Santiago Peña, and the former President of the Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP), Carlos Carvallo, within the case opened for the bankruptcy of Ueno Bank. In this criminal proceeding, 27 people already appear as charged, and the alleged irregular placement of public and pension resources in the Paraguayan financial entity that ended up going bankrupt is being analyzed.
The operations, led by agents of the Specialized Unit for Economic Offenses and Anti-Corruption (UDEA), made it possible to seize a large amount of documentation, computers, digital storage media, and other electronic devices both in the homes of the two former officials and at the headquarters of Ueno Casa de Bolsa.
In a previous search carried out last Sunday at another Peña residence in the locality of San Bernardino, investigators found a "highly complex security vault" that remains awaiting to be opened through expert appraisal. In the same proceeding, the authorities also confiscated a mobile phone at the place where the former president is being held in confinement.
During the intervention at the brokerage firm, the prosecutors ordered the detention of an official who would have been caught while allegedly destroying official documentation in the middle of the operation.
International tracing of assets and new charges
In parallel with the searches in Paraguay, the Public Ministry has launched efforts abroad to locate, immobilize, and repatriate assets outside the country for the purpose of compensating the harmed depositors.
The Prosecutor's Office has held telematic meetings with the Asset Recovery Office (ORA) and the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) of Luxembourg to promote the possible blocking of cryptoassets and stock market investments linked to the former President Peña. At the same time, Paraguayan authorities affirm that they are cooperating with the Governments of Argentina and with the Department of Justice of the United States.
The prosecution team has specified that the case file was opened on the past 3 November and that the charges were filed on an urgent basis due to the risk of flight following the political trial and the subsequent removal of Peña. The former head of state faces accusations of breach of trust and administration for personal benefit, while the former head of the Central Bank, Carlos Carvallo, is attributed with the crimes of breach of trust and indirect production of public documents of false content.
So far, the investigations extend to around 37 companies and 35 people related to the supervision systems and to regulatory decisions regarding the bank. The State’s attorney general, Emiliano Rolón Fernández, has strengthened the investigating team by bringing in new assistant prosecutors in order to deepen the tracing of assets and move forward with the adoption of precautionary measures on assets and corporate structures.
The collapse of the Paraguayan bank forced the intervention of the parent banking entity and precipitated the fall of Peña’s Government, which was replaced at the Head of State by the person who was his vice president, Pedro Alliana.
The new president this Monday continued with the renewal of the Executive just a few days after taking office, highlighting the appointment of Jorge Schreiner as head of the Central Bank of Paraguay.