Employees at collapsed Paraguayan digital lender Ueno Bank and an affiliated brokerage attempted to destroy documents mentioning ousted President Santiago Peña shortly before police arrived for raids, GloboNews reported. The attempted destruction follows a search of Peña’s $1.23 million summer residence, where investigators found a hidden armored vault behind a false wall, and requests by Paraguayan prosecutors to the US, Luxembourg and Argentina to help trace diverted bank funds.
Peña is in pretrial detention on charges of breach of trust and administration for personal gain after the Senate voted 44-0 on Friday to impeach him rather than accept his resignation, stripping him of the lifetime Senate seat and legal immunity granted to former presidents. Prosecutors are investigating his ties to Ueno parent Grupo Vázquez, where he was a shareholder and business partner until March 2025, as well as the placement of $850 million in public funds at the bank, including a 4,600% increase in state pension deposits since 2023 to 1.6 trillion guaraníes ($380 million).
