Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-79.52.61.188-20130415085048/@comment-4913740-20130709154013

Just to back up Weedle here, it even states it on our very own wiki page. With citing for the quote from the game, albeit a shortened quote...

What needs to be understood is the limitless resources that Cipher had from the Philosopher's Legacy. The full microfilm detailed the transactions that concealed the Legacy in various hidden bank accounts around the world. The entire collection of funds was around 100 billion dollars around 1945. Inflation over the years makes it closer to 1.3 trillion dollars in 2012. 100 billion dollars is a lot of money, even for today's standards. Zero even set up the San Hieronymo incident to recover half of the Legacy. That tells you how much influence he had even back then.

With the Legacy in hand, there was nothing Zero couldn't influence. Inciting incidents like San Hieronymo and Peace Walker are examples.