Paraguay’s President Peña Accused of Steering Near‑Billion into Collapsed Ueno Bank

Prosecutors have charged President Santiago Peña with channeling nearly a billion dollars of government funds into Ueno Bank, a financial institution whose executives were engaged in reckless insider lending.

The bank’s implosion, triggered by those risky loans, has left Paraguay’s public finances in a precarious position, turning what should have been a routine loan approval into a cautionary tale of fiscal mismanagement.

Observers liken the episode to a board game gone awry: a single pawn‑like decision by the president set off a cascade that toppled the bank and now haunts the nation’s balance sheet.

While the legal process unfolds, the episode underscores the perils of directing state money into institutions lacking robust risk controls, a lesson that regulators and policymakers will be forced to reckon with in the wake of the collapse.