Memorable Manitobans: Adam Joel Anhang (1973-2005)

Entrepreneur, murder victim.

Born at Winnipeg on 8 March 1973 to Abraham Anhang and Barbara Uster, he attended the Talmud Torah elementary school and Joseph Wolinsky Collegiate. He began his undergraduate studies at Yeshiva University in New York, becoming the executive editor of the student newspaper and a competitive member of the fencing team, and completed his undergraduate degree at the Wharton School of Business. Over the years, he returned to Wharton to give guest lectures about real estate.

His love for business was evident at an early age when he took a briefcase along to his first day of kindergarten. In his mid-twenties, after working for a couple of New York real estate firms, he went out on his own to start a consulting business in which he helped companies in different industries recover from dire financial straits. He was often called in to take on the CFO or CEO roles. He served as the CEO of CWC Gaming, a company that sold software to online gaming sites. He was also part owner of the Martineau Bay Resort in Puerto Rico. In later years, the majority of his time was spent working on large real estate projects that were slated to revitalize neighbourhoods in Puerto Rico. He had a passion for teaching and had planned to make it a focus of his work in the future.

His murder at San Juan, Puerto Rico on 23 September 2005, in front of a nightclub, resulted in a 13-year-long pursuit of justice for his death. Initially, a dishwasher at the club was convicted of the murder. He was later exonerated and, in 2018, Anhang’s estranged wife, Aureo Vasquez-Rijos, whom he had married in March 2005, was convicted of plotting to kill her husband in order to inherit his substantial estate. Also convicted of planning the murder were her sister and two other co-conspirators, including a hired hit man.

He was buried in the Shaarey Zedek Cemetery in Winnipeg.

Sources:

Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 4 October 2005.

“Puerto Rico’s ‘Black Widow’ gets life” by Claude Adams, Winnipeg Free Press, 15 March 2019.

“Police said a millionaire’s murder was a robbery” by Kyle Swenson, The Washington Post, 20 March 2019.

Murder of Adam Anhang,” Wikipedia.

This page was prepared by Lois Braun.

Page revised: 8 October 2023

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

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