Paraguay prosecutors say alleged vault in Santiago Peña’s home was an empty panic room in Ueno bank case

Paraguay’s Fiscalía said the “vault” found in former president Santiago Peña’s summer home was actually an empty panic room, after investigators opened the room during a weekend raid tied to the collapse of Ueno bank. For PSPs and acquirers, the relevant part is not the furniture: the case is now moving through asset seizures, document hunts, and questions over public funds.

1. Fiscal Silvia González told reporters that the room inside Peña’s property in San Bernardino was a panic room, “according to the technical terms they explained to me,” and that it contained nothing. She also said no cash was found there, and that the room appears to be new and unused.
2. Peña was charged on Saturday with alleged lesión de confianza and self-dealing after being removed from office for “mal desempeño de funciones” linked to ties with Ueno bank. He remains in custody at the Regimiento de Escolta Presidencial, a military unit in Asunción, and prosecutors said he cooperated from there by providing the location of the key needed to open the room.
3. The bank’s collapse left thousands of savers’ funds frozen, along with about $800 million in public funds, especially pension funds. That is the scale that tends to keep banking relationships, public-sector flows, and counterparty exposure on every compliance team’s desk.
4. According to the Fiscalía, the summer house was valued at more than $1 million in Paraguayan media reports, and its administration has been handed to the Secretaría Nacional de Administración de Bienes Incautados y Comisados (Senabico). The property could be rented out until the courts decide its final fate, Senabico head Teresa Rojas said.
5. Elsewhere in the investigation, prosecutors searched the Asunción home of former Economy and Finance Minister Carlos Fernández Valdovinos, who served from August 2023 until March, to look for documents showing whether he transferred public funds to Ueno during his time in office. Police and prosecutors also opened a safe containing about $14,100 at Ueno bank’s headquarters and continued searches at Ueno Casa de Bolsa, where they said staff may have tried to destroy information relevant to the case.