Who is Dr. Erwin Annau?
105 Facts, documents and transparency for visitors who want to form their own independent opinion.
Dr. Erwin Annau is an Austrian lawyer, entrepreneur, and project developer who has dedicated much of his professional life to international business development, real estate projects, education, and sustainable community concepts.
He holds a Master's Degree in Law and a Doctorate in Law and previously worked as a tax advisor in Austria before focusing on entrepreneurial activities and international investment projects.
Together with his wife, Sylvia Annau, he developed El Paraíso Verde, one of Paraguay's largest private residential and development projects, covering approximately 1,439 hectares. The project combines residential areas, infrastructure, agriculture, environmental conservation, and long-term investment concepts.
Throughout his career, Dr. Annau has trained thousands of consultants, organized seminars for tens of thousands of participants, and contributed to projects in business development, health education, and international networking.
Like many entrepreneurs involved in large-scale projects, he has also been involved in complex legal disputes and corporate conflicts. Some of these proceedings are still pending before Paraguayan courts.
Dr. Annau firmly rejects criminal allegations made against him and maintains that many of these disputes originate from corporate and shareholder conflicts rather than criminal conduct. His position is supported by numerous court records, notarized statements, expert reports, corporate documents, and other official records.
This website aims to provide factual information, original documents, and verifiable sources to allow visitors to form their own independent opinion.
It is based on one simple principle:
Facts, documents, and transparency are more valuable than rumors or speculation.
Documents and Source Material
This section contains original documents, official records, reports, statements, and downloadable source material.
Video Interviews and Transcripts
The following interviews are embedded via YouTube. The transcripts are included on this page as real text so that visitors and search engines can read the content.
Note: The transcripts reproduce statements made in the interviews. Allegations against third parties are presented as only unverified allegations unless they have been confirmed by final court decisions or official records.
Video 1: Preliminary Hearing and Allegation of Alleged Breach of Trust
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AwtaGpBhPk
Spanish version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMRTRTpRRYY
Video 2: Legal Certainty for Foreign Investors in Paraguay
Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QflEoT6T7IU
YouTube instructions on how to switch audio tracks and language: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/13339776?hl=en
Transcript — Video 1
Dear Carlos, the preliminary hearing is actually scheduled for tomorrow. Is that tomorrow? It is tomorrow, the 27th. Correct. Correct. I was mistaken. I thought it was the 28th. Good, then for tomorrow, can you explain this to us and give us some details? A preliminary hearing before which judge, which specific case? If you could briefly remind us who the defendant or defendants in this legal matter are. I believe there is only one defendant, but if you could give us the details. Correct. In this regard, we are dealing with a legal matter of enormous legal, economic, and above all corporate complexity. This is not a simple file or isolated events, but an investigation involving several operations. Above all, very substantial operations based on the amounts under investigation. Asset movements which, in reality, directly affected many investors and indirectly affected many workers who were employees of the company. In this regard, tomorrow will be a key day, considering that the preliminary hearing represents a decisive phase within criminal proceedings. There, we will primarily debate the validity of the evidence, the strength of the indictment, and also the responsibility of the accused. In this regard, Mr. Juan Joaquin Bucker, of Argentine nationality, is accused of the alleged criminal offense of breach of trust. In my capacity as private prosecutor, we are actively accompanying the procedural progress of this legal matter and, above all, supporting the necessity that all facts be fully clarified by the judiciary. We consider it fundamental that this process move forward seriously, above all with technical depth and absolute impartiality. Since the case is quite complex, and since alleged political entanglements exist, it is known that the situation becomes much more complex as soon as political actors begin to exert influence on cases and files. In this regard, what we logically want to achieve is that the prosecutor, or rather the investigative team, since it consists of three prosecutors, and likewise the judge — on the one hand, that the prosecutors act objectively, and that the judge acts impartially. Dear Carlos, good. The name of the judge before whom this procedural act must take place is Juan Antonio Ro... Doctor, Juan Antonio...
Transcript — Video 2
We now come to another topic. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to go deeper into the matter and analyze two words that we have heard very often in recent years. It is necessary to put the issue of legal certainty for foreign investors on the table. People who take great risks and place everything on a promising country encounter friction, broken promises, and political interference here. This definitely does not leave a good image of our country for investors. That is exactly what we want to analyze today in this sensitive space. We will try to get to the point as quickly and compactly as possible. This concerns a well-known project that has been paralyzed by the events. Specifically, this concerns the Paraíso Verde project and the company Railhof S.A. We want to shed light on the current situation and how the process is progressing. For this purpose, we have a valuable guest with us in the studio today. He is a lawyer, legal analyst, and directly involved in this case. Mr. Ignacio Sanchez is here with us in the studio today. Ignacio, how are you? Good afternoon. Good afternoon, dear David. It is a pleasure for me to be here in this pleasant conversation in order, as you already announced, to speak about the situation of the El Paraíso Verde project. Warm greetings to your fantastic television audience of ABC TV. And now, as you correctly said, while it is true that Paraguay has reached investment levels that have become consolidated, there is one extremely concerning aspect, especially for those who come here to invest. And that is legal certainty. In this context, Paraíso Verde is a project that was operated by the legal entity Relh S.A. And why do I say “was”? Because the premature dissolution of the company is currently being initiated. But why all this? Unfortunately, because of the lack of legal certainty. Ignacio, let us bring the viewers up to speed. What lies behind Paraíso Verde? Correct. Paraíso Verde is, or rather was, the most ambitious project in Latin America with regard to gated residential communities and condominiums exclusively for foreigners. When I took over the mandate in this case two years ago, I was honestly amazed by the sheer size and vision of this project, because it is something unique. And it left me deeply stunned to see that all of this essentially disappeared into the fog. It ended in nothing. Yes, in nothing, as a consequence of illegal and unlawful actions and, above all, through wrong decisions by the person who was the managing director of the company at that time. In this regard, I am referring to Mr. Juan Bucker, and, coincidentally, just yesterday we succeeded in obtaining the date for the preliminary hearing arising from an investigation file concerning the alleged criminal offense of embezzlement / breach of trust, in which I appear as private prosecutor. And, having said that, what I am getting at is that within this entire process there have been, and still are, very abnormal scenarios, legally speaking, which one thinks about and simply cannot explain. Currently, we are also conducting a civil proceeding in which purported preferred shareholders appear in order to assert rights. And why do I say purported preferred shareholders? Because the company, the legal entity RUF, was never a S.A.E.C.A., a publicly listed stock corporation. It never completed this S.A.E.C.A. process and therefore should never have sold or placed preferred shares on the market. And having said that, these persons obtained an interim measure by which a court-appointed administrator was installed. This decision was issued under the warning that, within a period of 30 days, a security deposit, or counter-guarantee, had to be registered. If this was not fulfilled within those 30 days, the interim measure was supposed to be lifted. And what happened? The opposing party did not register the security deposit. La contracautela — therefore, I initiated the corresponding steps, namely to request enforcement of this warning, and the judge classified this as an incidental proceeding, which, legally speaking, cannot be an incidental proceeding at all. This is an insult to the most basic understanding of the law. And when I recently happened to debate this with one of your colleagues on another program, he also could not understand why. But when I then carried out an inquiry at the competent court, namely Office No. 8 at the competent court in the jurisdiction of Villarrica, the head of that court office, Maria Claudia de Matteai, who is the head of the judge’s office, stated and declared that the lawyer for the opposing party had been her fellow student. If that is the case, how can I expect the judge’s decision to be impartial? And today we are litigating so that Judge Vanessa Minho withdraws from the file, because that is what the law requires. Likewise, we have filed a formal complaint before the Council for the Prosecution of Magistrates, the Jurado de Enjuiciamiento de Magistrados, and nevertheless the competent tribunal, consisting of Gustavo Elsaur, Ernesto Martinez, and Jose Benitez, confirmed the judge in office. Just imagine that. That means I file a formal complaint, and how can I then, with an ongoing formal complaint and with the awareness that the head of the court office was a fellow student of the opposing party, still expect them to be impartial? So there is an entire scenario here that absolutely does not guarantee what we all so strongly desire, namely legal certainty. And here we are talking about an investment of more than 100 million dollars. Yes, more than 100 million dollars, which essentially went down the drain. It went down the drain, and this affects my client, Dr. Erwin Annau, who is the lawful president of the company, together with his wife, Mrs. Silvia Anna. Austrians, correct. They are Austrians who trusted in the predictability of the Paraguayan system. Because what happens? As you often emphasize to me, from the outside, the Republic of Paraguay certainly appears attractive. But once one enters the Republic of Paraguay, it is jungle justice, a jungle. Then it becomes extremely complex. And this is precisely where I also disagree with what President Santiago Peña says. He always speaks of investment grade, investment grade. But if we do not support that with genuine legal certainty, if the new judges of the Supreme Court, Corte Suprema de Justicia, do not work on a state guideline for legal certainty in order to strengthen the entire justice system, then we cannot expect the Republic of Paraguay to find its best version. That is impossible, my dear David. Impossible. To summarize briefly, Ignacio: Paraíso Verde is one of the most ambitious projects in Latin America. People placed their trust in Paraguay, the project started well, but during the audit of the financial statements at the end of 2023, irregularities were discovered that were directly connected to the managing director of the company. Correct. And furthermore, a not insignificant fact, which I was able to gather on the basis of the information I collected as lawyer for the majority shareholder, is that Mr. Juan Bucker, the person currently under investigation for the alleged criminal offense of embezzlement / breach of trust, allegedly kept two balance sheets. One balance sheet which he showed to my clients, and another real balance sheet. That means he allegedly showed them a balance sheet that did not correspond with the accounting reality. Clearly, embellished. An embellished one, and then another one that was actually the real one. So we are truly dealing with a very aggravating situation, and this fulfills the elements of the alleged embezzlement / breach of trust offense as established in our Paraguayan Criminal Code. And we are talking here about an alleged misappropriation of 60 billion guaraníes. An extremely high amount. Exactly. And this person allegedly had political connections. Correct. At that time, the accused was a candidate for the office of regional party chairman and used that as a platform. Socially, it is known that a president of a sectional party organization always receives support from others; regional party chairmen are known to be supported by senators, deputies, and presidential candidates. The threads of this case come together in the departments of Caazapá and Guairá. Precisely the politicians from there are now sitting at the levers of power. We are talking about influential deputies and senators of the ruling party. Correct. Even the President of the Republic himself campaigned there at that time. As a lawyer, this leaves me stunned, because the whole thing no longer has anything to do with law. I can do my work as excellently as possible. In the end, other branches of government interfere, which have no place in the judiciary. The three branches of power are the legislative, the judiciary, and the executive. And in this regard, I see here that there is apparently interference by the legislative branch in matters of the judiciary. This is truly an absolute aberration, a deviation. It is something that causes enormous fear among investors, because they say to themselves: fine, if we intend to invest in the Republic of Paraguay, how are we supposed to put that into practice in such a corrupt scenario? And having said that, there are many situations taking place in the interior of the country that people here in the capital of the Republic do not hear about at all. That is why I unfortunately — and I consciously say unfortunately — also have to expose myself on television in order to speak openly about the reality. Because otherwise, it will never become known what is happening in the interior of the Republic. It is infinitely regrettable, because one logically expects that the organs of the administration of justice, the judges, the prosecutors, the court-appointed administrators, act as they should, absolutely in accordance with the law. Instead, we are truly in a catastrophic scenario here, one that leaves much to be desired. Nevertheless, the belief remains unshaken that this can be clarified. As a lawyer, what I seek above all is exactly that: that the truth comes to light, that the judiciary, the new judges of the Supreme Court, correct this situation in the interest of justice. Because that is what every lawyer seeks, is it not? Especially when one considers all the injustices surrounding this case. In short, Ignacio, I am running out of time. What do your clients want? Do they have doubts and want to withdraw their money in order to go to a safer place? Or do they want to continue investing in Paraguay? I will tell you quite openly, dear David. They have already completely given up hope. They even tell me that the only campaign they can still conduct now is the one in which they advise their friends not to come to the Republic of Paraguay under any circumstances in order to invest here. And that is something extremely bad, because it affects not only the most symbolic project we have in the area of residential developments and gated communities. It directly affects trust in an entire Republic. It harms all of us. It harms all Paraguayans that this scenario of a lack of legal certainty continues to prevail. And having said that, I remain hopeful that these cases, which are among the most symbolic in the departments of Caazapá and Guairá, can truly still be corrected and can take a path of justice, because that is what I can strive for as an officer of the court and as a lawyer. Therefore, even though my clients logically no longer have the intention of continuing to invest in the Republic of Paraguay, I have no other choice than to continue working in this honorable profession. Because there is still an incredible amount of legal work to be done in order to achieve at least this longed-for justice. Dear David, of course, and hopefully, this can be remedied. Unfortunately, this stain is now there, and this is not an isolated case. Many cases are politically entangled and intertwined with power. They stain a legal structure that should actually be solid and independent from other levels of power in Paraguay. But the viewer must know this reality. This is only one example among thousands of companies that want to move forward here, whether locally or foreign-financed. It is the prime example of a gigantic real estate project in Latin America that ultimately failed. Ignacio, I am running out of time. Thank you very much for your visit, much success, and hopefully until next time. Correct, dear David, and fortunately we were able to have this conversation in person here today. Thank you very much for your time. I am always at your disposal again. Perfect.
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