So the more you steal the better legal representation you can buy. The corollary is that your sentence and the seriousness of your crime are reversely correlated.
It's a win-win but both wins are for the same person.
Seems like that. Generally speaking a soft criminal will go down fast - either being caught because he didn't get rid of that witness or being whacked by some psychopath. But if you are ruthless and amass as much money and power as you can as fast as possible by any means necessary then you have a good chance of buying yourself out of any trouble you find yourself in. Also people will be more afraid of you and help you rewrite history - so you end up as some nobleman if you're lucky.