“The man without a face,” East German spy chief Generaloberst Markus Wolf. Whose son Franz now runs a complex web (a Geflecht or “weaving,” meshwork) of offshore companies supposedly from his registered residence in Gibraltar. The SZ calls his network an empire, stretching from the Caribbean to Russia. Companies in the network are involved in dozens of industries, including surprisingly water utilities (Wasserversorger, water suppliers). Speaking of water, the chains of companies also once helped hide ownership of the oil tanker Prestige after it sank off the coast of Spain in 2002 and its oil spilled onto Spanish beaches. The SZ said the Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote that ownership was eventually traced to a Franz Wolf company which quickly disappeared.

(Dare   MONN   oh neh   geh ZICHH t.)