Wire reporting: (AP, via Japan Today)

Paraguayan prosecutors on Saturday charged former President Santiago Peña over the collapse of digital lender Ueno Bank, days after the Senate removed him from office and placed him under house arrest^2,3,5.

The Senate voted 44-0, with one member absent, on Friday to convict him of misconduct after Ueno froze customer accounts earlier in the week^2,20. Peña had offered to resign; lawmakers instead impeached him, which outlets say stripped the immunity usually granted to former presidents^2,5,22.

Ueno was a widely used online bank. BBC said the freeze left more than half the country without access to accounts². France 24, citing AFP, said the bank held accounts for nearly half of Paraguay's 6.5 million people and more than $800 million in government funds⁵. MercoPress put the customer figure at nearly three million³.

Prosecutors allege that from 2023 to 2026 the bank took large public and pension deposits while making irregular loans to companies linked to its owners, the Vázquez Group³. Impeachment charges described by BBC included conflicts of interest, diverted pension money and a cover-up involving the central bank². Peña held shares in the holding company until last year and denies wrongdoing^2,5.

France 24 reported he was charged with breach of trust and mismanagement for personal gain, and that Judge Hernan Otazu ordered pre-trial custody after a Saturday hearing⁵. MercoPress said prosecutors also charged former Central Bank president Carlos Carvallo, who is in custody, and that a judge still had to rule on Peña's detention request³.

Peña's lawyer Ricardo Preda called the allegations a reckless accusation, according to BBC, and told France 24 that ministers, not the president, decide where government money is deposited^2,5. In a video announcing his resignation offer, Peña said, "It was never my intention to betray the trust you placed in me"².

Vice President Pedro Alliana of the same Colorado Party was sworn in and is to serve through August 2028^2,20. He pledged that people hit by the collapse would be compensated^2,5. MercoPress said protesters still want his removal, accusing him of failing to stop the failure, and that Peña was moved overnight to the Presidential Escort Regiment barracks after unrest near his Asunción residence^3,5.

Latin America Reports said former President Horacio Cartes's Colorado faction backed impeachment after a split with Peña, and that the Chamber of Deputies rejected Peña's resignation 78-0 so the Senate trial could proceed²². What a court will find on the criminal charges, and how depositors will be repaid, is not yet established^3,5.