The Public Prosecutor's Office of Paraguay has communicated this Saturday the indictment of former president Santiago Peña and former president of the Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP), Carlos Carvallo, in connection with the financial scandal linked to Ueno Bank, and has requested for both the precautionary measure of pretrial detention.
Peña, removed by the Senate last Friday, has been accused for the punishable acts of alleged breach of trust, in the capacity of instigator, and administration for his own benefit, in the capacity of perpetrator. Carvallo is attributed the crimes of breach of trust, immediate production of public documents containing false content, and administration for his own benefit as perpetrator, according to the communiqué issued by the prosecutor's office.
The investigations focus on "alleged irregularities in the placement of public and pension resources in Ueno Bank S.A., as well as in the supervision and control mechanisms of the banking entity and the alleged provision of incomplete or altered information regarding aspects linked to those functions".
According to the prosecutor's office, between 2023 and 2026 Ueno Bank would have received substantial deposits and placements from public agencies and pension entities, while, in parallel, it would have granted loans to companies related to its own economic group that presented alleged anomalies. In September 2026, the funds of public origin deposited in Ueno Bank amounted to around 3.6 trillion guaraníes (almost 505 million euros and 233.4 million dollars (almost 206.6 million euros)).
In his capacity as head of State, Peña "would have intervened in decisions linked to the placement, renewal and permanence of public and pension funds in Ueno Bank, an entity with whose business group he would have maintained economic and corporate relations". In particular, he had a shareholding interest in Ueno Holding S.A.E.C.A. and held meetings with officials of the Institute of Social Welfare (IPS) to define investments in financial instruments issued by the bank.
Carvallo, for his part, maintained a prior relationship with Financiera Ueno and made technical observations on the limits of credit exposure, operations with related companies, and the entity's financial standing, as detailed by the Public Prosecutor's Office.
Consequently, the Prosecutor’s Office has requested that the Criminal Court of Guarantees order preventive detention for the two accused, along with a general inhibition to dispose of and encumber assets, the identification of bank accounts, deposits, investments and other financial assets, as well as various steps to locate real estate, vehicles, corporate holdings and other patrimonial rights registered in the name of Peña and Carvallo.
Peña’s removal from the Presidency is directly related to the collapse of Ueno Bank, a financial entity linked to former business partners of the head of the administration, which collapsed and was intervened by the Central Bank of Paraguay after recording a collapse of its solvency below the minimum levels required, which prevented it from guaranteeing the security of the deposits of its millions of clients.