In the space of barely three days, beginning Nov. 3, Paraguay’s now former President Santiago Peña resigned, in hopes of avoiding prosecution, but was instead unanimously impeached in both houses of Congress, arrested and indicted for crimes committed in relation to the Ueno digital bank which regulators shut down on Nov. 3, preventing three million depositors—half the country’s population of six million—from accessing their funds. As far back as October of 2025, the bank had attracted the attention of regulators because of the large amount of public funds deposited there with little oversight of lending practices. Peña’s personal and family ties to the bank’s founders and officers were also suspect.
As of this morning, prosecutors had indicted Peña on charges of “breach of the public trust, influence peddling and use of public office for personal gain,” according to the Paraguayan daily ABC Color. These charges carry a jail term of 5-10 years. Deemed a flight risk because of his family’s significant financial and corporate holdings in the Duchy of Luxembourg, Judge Humberto Otazu ordered Peña to be jailed at the Presidential Escort Regiment for pre-trial detention.
Peña is one of President Trump’s poster boys in South America, quickly joining the Shield of the Americas project and lavishing praise on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Carlos Carvallo, former head of the Central Bank, whom Peña had appointed, was also indicted, charged with “breach of trust for his personal benefit,” and “publication of false public documents,” and arrested for pre-trial detention. Prior to becoming Central Bank governor, Carvallo was president of the finance company that later became Ueno. Separately, prosecutors have indicted 27 of the bank’s executives, charging them with breach of trust and attempted fraud, the Associated Press reported Nov. 6.
The investigation of Ueno Bank is ongoing, and evidence of its sleazy operations and betrayal and defrauding of Paraguayans and public entities is staggering. That this is not just a local Paraguayan matter is also evidenced by the bank’s ties to the dirty regional “right-wing” swamp whose billionaire luminaries gathered at Mar-a-Lago in February of this year for the Hispanic Prosperity Gala. According to the International Business Times, Ueno was one of five “Diamond Sponsors” of this event, to the tune of $100,000. The organizer of the event, “Latino Wall Street,” lavished praise on Ueno Bank’s role and publicized its participation on social media. Brasil247 elaborated on the presence at the event of Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of jailed former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who is now self-exiled in the U.S. and would face arrest in Brazil on corruption charges were he to return. Eduardo introduced the disgraced Argentine political fixer and MAGA operative Fernando Cerimedo, handing him an award as “political consultant of the year.” He especially praised Cerimedo for his activities in Brazil during and after the 2022 presidential elections, won by Lula da Silva, in which he accused Lula of election fraud and was later implicated in Jair Bolsonaro’s January 2023 coup attempt against the elected President. Argentina’s half-crazed President Javier Milei addressed the gala by video hookup and also lavished praise on Cerimedo.
