Three months later on April 13 the investment went bad after French Law No. He made a major investment in a string of brothels with money belonging to SMERSH. Then in January 1946 he became the paymaster of the 'Syndicat des Ouvriers d'Alsace' (SODA) (English: Union of Workers of Alsace), a SMERSH controlled trade union.
Le Chiffre (AKA 'Herr Nummer', 'The Number', and 'Herr Ziffer') was earliest seen during 1945 as a inmate of the Dachau DP camp in the US Zone of Germany.
