The managing director of the Gazprom subsidiary Nord Stream 2, Matthias Warnig, has reorganized his private financial situation in response to the US sanctions against himself and his company. According to research by WELT AM SONNTAG, the former Stasi agent and close confidant of Putin recently reduced his stake in the family holding company MW Invest KG from 42.75 to just one percent.
He transferred the shares that became free to his wife and four children. The company, based in Staufen im Breisgau, where Warnig also lives, holds real estate and land valued at an estimated 25 to 30 million euros.
The Warnig family’s tax advisor confirmed the change to the newspaper. According to him, the holding company has total capital of EUR 2.33 million. The tax consultant left questions about the US sanctions unanswered. US President Joe Biden instructed his administration on February 23 to impose punitive measures against Nord Stream 2 and those responsible for the company.
With the restructuring of private wealth, Warnig is following a pattern known from sanctioned oligarchs. For example, what was once the richest man in Russia, Alexey Mordashov, who held a 34 percent stake in TUI through an intermediate company, transferred shares in Germany’s largest travel group to his children’s mother.
Matthias Warnig is now also under pressure as a businessman. Nord Stream 2 AG is in acute danger of insolvency. Last week, a judge at the Swiss cantonal court in Zug, where the company is based, granted a four-month grace period.
During this time, the “provisional administrator” Philipp Possa is to sound out the chances of a restructuring. “I’m in the process of getting an overview,” says Possa WELT AM SONNTAG.
