it's the LOVE of MONEY that is the root of much evil... not just money...
"Merckle used his background as a lawyer to create an opaque structure for his empire, exploiting tax rules and shifting the domiciles of his businesses.

His main companies were based on his family heritage. He took the remnants of his grandfather’s tiny pharmaceuticals business and in 30 years turned it into Europe’s second-largest drugs wholesaler, Phoenix. A trip to the US in the 1970s showed him the potential for generic drugs and Ratiopharm, the manufacturing company he then founded, is now the sector leader in Germany.

Finally, Merckle used his mother’s and his wife’s positions in cement dynasties to turn a 1 per cent holding in HeidelbergCement into 80 per cent just three years ago.

The seeds for his downfall, however, were also sown during his rise. First there was the complicated structure of his companies, where his holding in one would be pledged as collateral for the buying of another. “He w