[alasdair_]

Think of essentially any major US-based scandal in the last twenty years involving extremely powerful individuals (presidents, billionaires etc.). I think it is highly likely that in each case, the most powerful people managed to avoid prosecution and sentencing unless the people they harmed were even more powerful than themselves.

More importantly, these powerful people effectively write the laws themselves - why break a law when you can simply cause whatever action you wish to take to become legal?

Torturing prisoners? Crashing the world's financial system? Spying on millions of Americans without any kind of warrant? Lying about the spying to congress? All no problem! Just make up a law and get it passed, or if you forgot to do that, get retroactive immunity granted or just ask the President to pardon you directly.

The only thing that matters is how much power (influence, force, money etc.) you can bring to bear and who your opponents are. Law is irrelevant. To put it in plainer terms: people who own nuclear weapons don't have to pay their parking tickets.