Follow-Up: Paraguay Prosecutors Formally Charge Former President Peña Over the Ueno Bank Collapse; Judge Orders Pretrial Detention
ASUNCIÓN — Paraguayan prosecutors on November 7 formally charged former President Santiago Peña with instigating breach of trust and administering assets for personal gain in the collapse of the digital bank Ueno, and a judge ordered him held in pretrial detention. The charges came one day after the Senate removed Peña from office by impeachment on November 6.
According to the prosecutors' statement and multiple wire reports, former central bank president Carlos Carvallo Spalding was charged in the same case, No. 92/2026, with breach of trust and producing false public documents. The indictment alleges that between 2023 and 2026 Ueno Bank received deposits and funding arrangements from public and pension entities, and that Peña intervened in the placement, renewal and retention of those public funds at the bank. More than twenty people have been charged in the case, including Ueno founder Miguel Vásquez. Nancy Salomón, the chief prosecutor for corruption and economic crimes, said Peña could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of both counts.
Peña appeared before prosecutors on November 7 and declined to testify. He has denied wrongdoing, saying the bank's problems were regulatory matters rather than personal misconduct. After a hearing, Judge Humberto Otazú ordered pretrial detention, with Peña held at a Presidential Escort Regiment facility rather than an ordinary prison. The charges are prosecutors' allegations and have not been established by a court judgment.
Ueno was Paraguay's largest digital bank, with about 2.94 million customers in a country of 6.1 million people. The central bank seized and dissolved it this month over solvency failures, and depositors have protested for days. Pedro Alliana, who was sworn in as president on November 6 after serving as vice president, began naming a new cabinet on November 7 and pledged compensation measures that prioritize depositors in vulnerable circumstances.
(Source: Paraguay Public Prosecutor's Office)
Source: Paraguay Public Prosecutor's Office
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：巴拉圭前总统 Santiago Peña 2023年8月就职时讲话（资料图）。照片：中华民国总统府官方照片，CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Former Paraguayan President Santiago Peña speaking at his inauguration in August 2023 (file photo). Photo: Office of the President, Republic of China (Taiwan), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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- 2026-11-07Follow-Up: Paraguay Prosecutors Formally Charge Former President Peña Over the Ueno Bank Collapse; Judge Orders Pretrial DetentionThis story
