The Paraguayan Public Prosecutor’s Office attributed a preliminary patrimonial loss of US$ 809.5 million to the operations investigated involving Ueno Bank, in a new stage of the formal indictment filed against former President Santiago Peña and the former President of the country’s Central Bank, Carlos Carvallo, the Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color reported in a story published this Sunday.
Read also: Itaipu calls on Paraguay’s Public Prosecutor’s Office to recover US$ 182 million deposited in Ueno
The amount covers exposure of US$ 576.1 million in deposits in local currency (3.608 trillion guaranis) and US$ 233.4 million in dollar-denominated resources belonging to the Social Security Institute (IPS), Itaipu Binacional, Yacyretá, and the National Electricity Administration (ANDE), kept at the financial institution while the entity granted loans to companies linked to the group.
Among the new elements presented by the prosecution and carried by the Paraguayan newspaper, there is the granting of two simultaneous loans by Ueno Bank to Peña on May 13, 2024, totaling 3.548 billion guaranis (approximately US$ 510,500) for the construction of a private residence in San Bernardino. The monthly installments amounted to 239 million guaranis (about US$ 34,400), an amount equivalent to roughly six times the monthly remuneration declared for the office of the President of the Republic, which was 37.9 million guaranis (approximately US$ 5,450).
Read also: Paraguay’s Foreign Affairs says the country “emerges strengthened” from the Ueno Bank crisis
The investigation also incorporated inquiries into the ending of custody of two envelopes containing US$100,000 each at the official residence of Mburuvicha Róga between October 2024 and February 2025, delivered to the former head of state in June of the following year, in addition to private meetings held between Peña and the controller of the Víquez Group, Miguel Vázquez.
In light of the magnitude of the sums involved, Paraguayan justice ordered a general prohibition on disposing of assets and a preventive seizure of Peña’s and Carvallo’s bank accounts this Saturday (07) to curb any potential asset transfer.
Carvallo remains in preventive detention on charges of breach of trust, embezzlement for personal gain, and production of public documents with false content, accused of being aware of patrimonial inconsistencies at the bank since June 2026 and of omitting technical alerts in reports sent to the Senate in October, according to Reuters.
Read also: Ueno Bank: The Central Bank has already returned US$ 158 million, but 669 thousand accounts remain pending
Former President Santiago Peña also had preventive detention ordered and remains in custody at a military unit in Asunción, with judicial authorization to receive visits and use a mobile phone. Both remain under investigation, with no final conviction to date.
