Paraguayan police raided ousted President Santiago Peña’s mansion, worth more than $1 million and reportedly financed by collapsed digital lender Ueno Bank, uncovering a vault behind a false wall reportedly equipped with an Israeli security system and an iris scanner. The search is part of a criminal investigation into alleged financial misconduct tied to the bank’s failure, which led a court on Saturday to order Peña held in pretrial detention after prosecutors charged him with breach of trust and administration for personal gain.
Paraguay’s Senate voted 44-0 on Friday to impeach Peña rather than accept his resignation, stripping him of the lifetime Senate seat and prosecutorial immunity granted to former presidents, and swore in Vice President Pedro Alliana to finish the term through August 2028. Prosecutors are examining Peña’s ties to Ueno parent Grupo Vázquez, where he held a stake until March 2025, and the placement of $850 million in public funds at the lender, including a 4,600% jump in state pension deposits to 1.6 trillion guaraníes ($380 million) since 2023 and nearly R$1 billion held by the Paraguayan side of the Itaipu hydroelectric dam.