They do pull a lot of strings. Do they pull the strings for everything? Probably not. There are plenty of freemason celebrities and politicians though. Not to mention freemason hospitals, freemason based private schools.
Don't think so, unless the richest folks in the world are all exclusive freemasons, which is not the case.
The "Illuminati" stuff has been hijacked by retarded alien conspiracies where Dulce Base hides the rulers of the universe and transports them around the world at Mach 5 speeds beneath the earth's crust, and the like.