PARAGUAY · BANKING CRISIS
Key Facts
- What Prosecutors and police searched the head office of failed Ueno Bank in Asunción on Monday night, 9 November 2026.
- Found Two safes: one opened and held documents, the other sat behind a bathroom wall and stays sealed.
- Also The same day, investigators also searched the group’s brokerage and the homes of ex-president Santiago Peña and ex-central-bank chief Carlos Carvallo.
- Next Prosecutors planned to open the second safe on Tuesday 10 November; its contents are unknown.
- Power Index Paraguay ranks 10th of 14 in The Rio Times Latin America Power Index, with 35.0 points (November 2026 edition).
Paraguayan investigators went into the head office of a bank that collapsed last week. What they found behind a bathroom wall is still locked.
Paraguay’s prosecution service searched the head office of Ueno Bank in Asunción, the capital, on the night of Monday 9 November 2026, as part of the criminal case over the digital lender’s collapse. Ueno is a digital bank that served almost three million Paraguayans before the Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP) took control of it last week.
Prosecutors say they found two safes in the building. For foreign readers the case matters because Ueno issued dollar bonds in international markets earlier this year, and because the case has reached the country’s former president.
What Investigators Found Inside
The search was led by prosecutors Silvio Corbeta Dinamarca, Jorge Arce Rolandi and Yeimy Adle Monges, with National Police officers. The building houses the office of Miguel Vázquez, chief executive of Grupo Vázquez, a business group linked to the bank, and a former vice-president of Ueno Bank.
Locksmiths who specialise in safes were hired by the prosecution and arrived at the site. Opening the first safe took hours, until late at night, and it held documents that prosecutors called of interest to the case.
Corbeta told reporters that the team noticed something unusual while looking for documents and asked for it to be checked. That led to a second safe on the roof terrace, hidden behind a bathroom wall.
Officials sealed the second safe on Monday night and planned to open it on Tuesday 10 November. Corbeta said its contents are unknown.
A Wider Day of Raids
The search was one of several on Monday. Investigators also entered the brokerage arm, Ueno Casa de Bolsa, the group’s stockbroker, where prosecutors say the head of operations, Andrea Benítez, was detained after the prosecution team allegedly caught her destroying documents.
She is under investigation for obstructing the execution of a criminal case, a charge she has not been convicted of. Local reports said some of the papers allegedly concerned stock-market investments of Santiago Peña, Paraguay’s former president, but that is not confirmed by prosecutors, and Peña has not been convicted of any crime.
The Public Ministry, the prosecution service, said investigators searched the homes of Peña and of Carlos Carvallo, the former head of the BCP. Documents, computers and other devices were seized and logged under chain of custody, it said.
The BCP now runs Ueno Bank under intervention, meaning it has taken over management, and controls the head office and its records, Corbeta noted. He said the prosecution went in to look for evidence, and that the search of the remaining offices was not finished.
In Plain English
Intervention means the central bank has taken over a lender’s management to protect depositors.
Safe (caja fuerte) is a locked strongbox; investigators use specialist locksmiths so the contents are not damaged.
Chain of custody is the paper trail that shows seized evidence was not altered.
What It Means for You
For US investors, Ueno matters because it issued US$350 million of senior bonds (ordinary unsecured debt) due 2031 in international markets in March 2026 and the case now sits at the centre of a political crisis in Asunción. Anyone holding Paraguayan assets or doing business with Paraguayan companies should watch what the safes and seized records show about the bank’s finances.
Prosecutors say they will seek help from the United States, Luxembourg and Argentina to trace money. Contacts with Luxembourg and Argentina are already under way.
What Is Not Known
What is inside the second safe is not known, and no report of it being opened had appeared by early Tuesday. Prosecutors have not said whether the documents from the first safe change the charges, and every person named here is presumed innocent until a court rules.
Our earlier reporting is in Paraguay Holds Ex-President Peña Before Trial and Ueno Bank Case Charges 27, Liability Open. For what could follow, see What Comes Next for Ueno Bank and Paraguay.
The bond and asset side is in Itaipu Dam Seeks US$182M Back From Ueno Bank. More is on our Paraguay page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did prosecutors find at Ueno Bank’s head office?
They found two safes on Monday 9 November 2026. The first held documents of interest to the case, and the second, hidden behind a bathroom wall on the terrace, was sealed until Tuesday.
Who led the search of Ueno Bank in Asunción?
Prosecutors Silvio Corbeta Dinamarca, Jorge Arce Rolandi and Yeimy Adle Monges led it, with the National Police. The Central Bank of Paraguay, which runs the bank under intervention, controls the building.
Why was an Ueno brokerage executive detained?
Prosecutors say Andrea Benítez, head of operations at Ueno Casa de Bolsa, was caught destroying documents during a search. She is under investigation and has not been convicted.
Does the Ueno case affect US investors?
Ueno issued US$350 million of senior bonds (ordinary unsecured debt) due 2031 in international markets in March 2026. Prosecutors say they will seek help from the United States, Luxembourg and Argentina in tracing money.
Sources: Paraguay Public Ministry statements on the searches of 9 November 2026 and remarks by prosecutor Silvio Corbeta Dinamarca to the press, read 10 November 2026; Banco Central del Paraguay (bcp.gov.py), intervention of Ueno Bank, read 10 November 2026.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated AI newsroom. Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief. The Rio Times also runs Ask Rio Times, which answers from 100,000+ of our own articles, the daily Latin America Power Map, and prediction-market odds on elections and markets.. How we use AI · Report an error