History Main / ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney

* ''Fanfic/OfHeistsAndHustles'' (''VideoGame/SlyCooper'' & ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}''): Defied. The Cooper gang makes sure the BigBad can't use his wealth to weasel his way out of criminal charges by hacking into his bank accounts, ransacking his mansion, and then ''blowing it up'' so he can't sell the property. And [[LaserGuidedKarma just after his insurance company dropped his coverage]], too.

* Used several times in the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series, when the culprit turns out to be a person in a position of money and/or power. The most blatant example is in ''Investigations'' when [[spoiler:Ernest Amano finds out that his son was potentially the murderer. After using his extended resources to actually be more effective than the police in searching the park for evidence, he actually ''buys'' the haunted house that contains the crime scene. Fortunately, Little Thief is there to save the day and recreate the scene.]]
** As well in the first case, [[spoiler: Redd White]] has so much money [[spoiler: and has so many people blackmailed and panicked to do anything to stop him]] that he literally almost gets away with murder during the first half of the case because nobody feels safe to say anything and the girl on the stand, April May, doesn't seem to know him [[spoiler: or at least doesn't want to get herself killed]]. When you finally do confront this jerk, [[spoiler: he]] freely punches Phoenix, dares him to do something about it, and says that tomorrow [[spoiler: he]] will testify in court in order to prove their own innocence [[spoiler: and finger Phoenix as the murderer]].
** Also subverted in ''Justice For All'' by Max Galactica. He tells Phoenix he's SURE he won't be convicted of murder because he's rich and famous. When Phoenix points out that it doesn't work like that, Max panics. He's innocent, but you get him off the charge the proper way.

* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Wilson "ComicBook/TheKingpin" Fisk, particularly the ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'' version.

[[AC: [[Franchise/DragonBall]]

%%* The premise of the creation of the snuff film at the centre of ''Film/EightMM''.

* The usual crew in ''Series/SavedByTheBell'' had a fantasy of if they were to strike oil in the Pipe Dreams episode, how incredibly rich the school would be. Zack, to the teacher who reminded them about the test that day and that it was a rule says, "We have money, so there are no rules!" Being born in '86 and watching SBTB growing up, Zack was the only one I saw with a mobile phone in the '90s AND I think his dad was a lawyer...I always thought it was a big plothole in that Zack was obsessed with becoming rich!

* In the CrapsackWorld of the Weill/Brecht opera ''The Rise and Fall of the City Mahagonny'', Jimmy Mahoney is sentenced to death for the [[FelonyMisdemeanor most heinous and foul crime]] of not paying his bar tab. Too bad he didn't have any money (nobody was willing to lend him any, either). If he'd had enough to bribe the judge, he could have gotten away with murder in cold blood, like the man who was tried just before him.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' gives us the rare heroic version in the person of Rick Castle himself. He's very rich, very famous, and shows absolutely no hesitation when it comes to using those things to help his cop friends get through roadblocks he finds annoying (for example, calling the Mayor to complain to get a forensic test moved up the priority list).

Let's face it: life sucks, especially when you don't have much money to your name. This goes double in the world of fiction, where [[RichBitch those that]] [[CorruptCorporateExecutive have money]] always try to find ways to make things miserable for those who don't. Such things as ThePowerOfLove and ThePowerOfFriendship generally have no effect on them. As long as they have money, [[VillainWithGoodPublicity they can do anything]]... even [[DevilInPlainSight get away with murder or crimes against humanity.]] Or BuyThemOff for whatever evil deeds they did commit. Therefore, a wealthy person who adopts this attitude has a greater chance of becoming a KarmaHoudini than any poor person.

* This was {{Wrestling/WW|E}}F wrestler "The Million Dollar Man" Wrestling/{{Ted DiBiase}}'s whole character, right down to attempting to buy the WWF World Heavyweight Championship from Wrestling/HulkHogan for one million dollars when he couldn't win it in a match (no matter how much he cheated) and then using the money to hire Wrestling/AndreTheGiant to get it for him when Hulk refused to sell. Once that failed, he simply made his own championship belt. With diamonds. And blackjack. And hookers. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking OK, maybe not blackjack]]. His CatchPhrase was, "Everybody's got a price!"

* ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' gives us Peter Stone, a {{rich b|itch}}astard who films Drunk!Manny stripping and makes it into a meme, but still dates her best friend Emma. In the next season, Emma's ex-boyfriend Sean, who is the school's hero after saving them all from a shooting, comes back, and Peter plants drugs in his locker. Then Peter and Sean start racing, and Peter goes to jail. His mother was the principal.

'''Kaiba:''' Screw the rules, I have money!

* In ''Anime/CTheMoneyAndSoulOfPossibility'', the money quite simply makes the rules.

* PlayedWith in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/44607043/chapters/121613383 A Price to Pay]]'': After Gabriel Agreste causes a car accident that results in Tom Dupain-Cheng's death, he bribes the judge to avoid any legal repercussions. However, the ''real'' reason Tom died is because Gabriel/Hawkmoth [[TheBadGuyWins made a reality-altering Wish]] to bring his wife Emelie back... and while she [[LockedOutOfTheLoop has no idea]] about said Wish, she's able to see how callously he handles the whole affair, and is so disgusted she divorces him. Thus, while Gabriel got his Wish and evaded legal consequences, he's still seen as a murderer, and Emilie wants nothing to do with him.

[[AC:Crossover]]

* In '[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10602244/15/The-Last-Tribute The Last Tribute]]'' from ''Fanfic/{{The End of the World|FernWithy}}'' series, Haymitch invokes this by having one of his sponsors talk about what a shame it is that their slaves to the rules say only one tribute can survive the Hunger Games.
-->'''Haymitch:''' The notion to being slaves to something as mundane as rules will rankle a certain class of Capitolite, and she knows it.

* In ''Fanfic/WhiteRain'', [[spoiler:Lucia van Alstyne tries this on the Hokage - Uzumaki Naruto. While it doesn't quite work, Shikamaru reveals that for all intents and purposes, she '''does''' own a hefty chunk of Fire Country, and probably Konoha as well]].

-->'''Alister:''' Wait a moment, did you just fuse a trap card with a monster?
-->'''Kaiba:''' Yeah, so?
-->'''Alister:''' That's against the rules, isn't it?
-->'''Kaiba:''' Screw the rules, I have a DOOM VIRUS DRAGON! ''(awkward cough in the audience)'' Oh shoot, did I just kill that joke?

-->'''Dartz:''' Scwew the weuwules, I have the Shiibaldahhhbaladoobalabadah!
-->''({{Beat}})''
-->'''Kaiba:''' ...The hell did he just say?
-->'''Yami:''' I don't know, but they're gonna make a shirt of it!

* ''Fanfic/RedactionOfTheGoldenWitch'': This is how the 1996 group is able to reach Rokkenjima Island, despite how it's officially strictly off-limits. Cass is eventually able to find and bribe [[spoiler:the pilot of a surveyor plane]] into taking them there. She avoids saying [[YouDoNotWantToKnow just how much it took]].

%%* The premise of the creation of the snuff film at the centre of ''Film/EightMM''

* ''Fanfic/InvaderZimABadThingNeverEnds'': Near the end of his introduction in Chapter 7, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Aldrich Coathanger]] gloats about how being a trillionaire means that he can buy his way out of anything. Something he demonstrates after the destruction of his VR gaming facility by literally throwing money at the cops so they won't investigate him, and at Jeff Sheffy to stop reporting about it, which works in both cases.

[[folder:Real Life]]
NOTE: Please restrict yourself to either (a) general classes of behavior or (b) specific instances only when either (1) the trope is well documented/undisputed or (2) all parties to the incident have all been dead for at least fifty years.
* Lobbying. Sure, the law says that bribery is corruption and is illegal, but [[LoopholeAbuse you need campaign donations]]. And an ArmyOfLawyers need to eat too. Amped up with the Citizens United court decision, which means you can provide unlimited money in support of someone without declaring where any of it is coming from; ''Series/TheColbertReport'' has had a pretty extensive segment skewering this.
* Occupy Wall Street drew attention to the many instances of this in America.
* Played straight to the point of RefugeInAudacity in the 2007 and 2008 financial meltdown, though notably subverted with Bernard Madoff.
* After the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ended, many people in ex-communist nations accepted bribes, since wages ended with the collapse of the government. This resulted in millions of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_the_AK-47_and_M16 AK-47s]] and other weaponry being sold on the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_market grey market]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_market black market]]. And not just weapons -- under the "economic liberalization" program advocated by Western nations and agencies, and required for the post-Soviet nations to get loans, whole factories and industries were sold off to wealthy people who took them apart for parts and grew insanely rich, earning the name of "oligarchs".
-->Everything the Soviets ever told us about Communism was a lie. Unfortunately, everything they told us about capitalism was true. -- ''[[RussianHumour Russian joke]]''
* According to [[https://www.amazon.com/Russians-People-behind-Gregory-Feifer/dp/1455509647 this book]], pretty much everything in Russia runs on bribes. For a specific example, you know most of the dash-cam videos on Website/YouTube come from Russia or the former Soviet bloc? It's to prevent CorruptCops [[http://www.businessinsider.com/why-russian-drivers-have-dash-cams-2012-12 from accepting bribes in a car accident]]. It's more cost-effective (not to mention reliable) to shell out some money for a dashcam rather than get hit with a fraudulent lawsuit because the other driver could pay off the cop. Surprisingly, higher education and ''kindergartens'' are on par with this instance.
* Defectors have used bribe money to escape UsefulNotes/NorthKorea and/or convince North Korean officials to [[EveryManHasHisPrice ignore black market deals]]. Bribery became very common after North Korea's economy started to fail when the UsefulNotes/ColdWar ended. North Korea depended on foreign aid to keep its economy intact. When Russia and China began to charge higher prices for petroleum and other supplies, the infrastructure suffered a breakdown that became worse after the famine. However, the BribeBackfire can instantly apply if the bribe threatens the North Korean official with public exposure.
** This also has applied to UsefulNotes/{{China}}. Bribes are paid so black market operations will be ignored.
** In the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, a bribe can do practically anything to circumvent petty traffic laws and bureaucratic red tape, to the point where politicians and policemen are nearly always depicted as crocodiles, eager to swallow up more cash. It works the other way around too - come campaign season, expect to see vote-buying on a scandalous scale.
** Some urban areas of Thailand. It's not as bad now as it used to be, but at its peak, bribery happened in every walk of life on every rung of the social ladder. This is most evident with traffic tickets, where you immediately pay the fine, which is essentially a bribe to the officer equal to the price of the fine. This traffic-based bribery was so rampant in the '90s that traffic cops would avoid pulling over any motorists who looked western, because they knew these people were less likely to pay the ticket as normal (either because they didn't understand the bribery system, they were morally against it, or they came from a country where bribing of police officers was not common), meaning the officers wouldn't get as much money and were thus wasting their time.
* An OlderThanFeudalism example was Rome: an interesting example of this trope is that in the Roman Republic, there was a fixed fine for assault, which was not adjusted for inflation, and after several centuries of currency debasement, the fine was worthless. Rich sociopaths used to walk down the street punching people in the face and then handing over purses full of small change; legally, this was adequate compensation and the victims couldn't bring charges—though this technically also meant nothing was stopping the victim from hitting back and literally returning the money.
* Related to the above, fines in ''general''. Because fines may be fixed, what may be an "ouch" to a working-class citizen may be mere pocket change to someone with more wealth. For that matter, a lot of lawsuits in general against corporations tend to not hurt them because a couple hundred thousand dollars in legal fees and fines is merely pocket change. Some industries in fact simply find it ''cheaper'' to pay fines instead of following the law. This is partly why criminal penalties exist. With the difference in outcomes for people who can hire high-priced attorneys, this is tragically becoming an example of the trope as well.
** This is why punitive damages exist in torts in UsefulNotes/TheCommonLaw. It's easy to get worked up about jury judgments in the millions of dollars against defendants in (for instance) product liability cases, but you have to realize that the ''point'' of allowing punitive damages is to make it so that large corporations actually feel the bite when they hurt people.
** Averted by Finnish and German traffic laws, which base fines on offenders' income in order to make sure they hurt a rich person as much as they would a poor person.
** Disneyland California evidently pays a fine every night for their fireworks performance(s).
*** Walt Disney World in Florida does not... because they own so much of the land, they ''are'' the government, right up to the county level.
** Oddly enough, this is the point of Islamic law's prescription of cutting off a hand as punishment for theft. Today, most of the world finds this barbaric, but it made a great deal of sense in seventh-century Arabia: they couldn't really afford to imprison anyone[[note]]Which is why Islamic law has rules regulating but not forbidding slavery--remember that slavery in ancient and medieval societies was a way to deal with prisoners of war. The early Muslims took [=POWs=] as slaves because the state couldn't afford to run POW camps; indeed, the idea of a POW camp would have been rather alien to a 7th-century person even of a culture that probably could afford to incarcerate [=POWs=].[[/note]]but obviously imposing a fine for theft would mean that the punishment would be disproportionally harsh to the poor. Losing a hand, though? Even rich people would hate to part with a hand.
** The Pinto was designed as an economical choice for lower-income drivers, but it was later revealed that the Pinto had a defect in the gas tank that could cause it to burst into flames in even low-speed rear-end collisions. According to a leaked document dubbed "The Ford Pinto Memo," Ford greenlit the [[http://www.motherjones.com/politics/1977/09/pinto-madness?page=1 Pinto]] while knowing about the design flaws; the legal damages they would have to pay ''on average'' was cheaper than going back and fixing all the existing cars and manufacturing methods and the expected costs of legal expenses from people who were injured or killed as a result of the defect. A combination of public backlash and actual costs changed their minds.
** Marshawn Lynch, running back for the [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague Seattle Seahawks]], wears Skittles-colored shoes that are against NFL regulations. However, Skittles is more than happy to pay the fines for him, since it's chump change for their marketing department. Lynch, for his part, gets a Skittles vending machine in his locker, which works out as he's addicted to the candies. Lynch was also famous for being TheSilentBob and paying fines instead of having to talk to the press. Famously, when told he ''couldn't'' do so, went to a press conference and answered every question with "I'm just here so I don't get fined."
** Preceding this was UsefulNotes/MichaelJordan's signature red Air Jordans - Nike also paid the fine he incurred every game by wearing them because the free advertising worked in their favor.
** The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullingdon_Club Bullingdon Club]], an expensive all-male invite-only dining society at Oxford University, has a long tradition of trashing establishments its members go to - and paying on the spot for the damage caused. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, both UsefulNotes/DavidCameron and UsefulNotes/BorisJohnson were members while at Oxford, as have a large chunk of the male Oxonian Tories in government. [[CompulsiveLiar For what it’s worth]], Johnson [[OldShame professes to be embarrassed about his membership in the "twattish" organisation]].)
* ''TMZ'' has an infamous reputation even in the major news outlets for paying anybody [[{{Paparazzi}} just to get headlines]]. With this and being a {{Determinator}}, they can get headlines before public releases, and, in rarer cases, before the police and public officials. However, sister stations like CNN (they are owned by the same parent company) see them as NecessarilyEvil under how [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman they get notorious scandals out in the open when nobody else does]] and TMZ is able to push boundaries but not to illegality.
* This can be said to be the theme of the Ride/SixFlags parks' "Flash Pass" system. Pay upwards of $40 for the privilege of reserving specific times to bypass the long lines and ride the most popular rides.
** Because Disney World lacks a service where money can be exchanged for shorter waits, some people have come up with their own. A handicapped "guide" can be hired for $130/hr to pose as a member of your family during a trip to the park. This allows the family to skip all of the lines all day. Because of this, the rules were amended so that disabled people are instead given a card with a time on it and told to return during that time.
* College Admissions: You can play it fair and brave the single-digit acceptance percentages at top schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and the like, but if your family has money and/or connections to the school, a hefty donation might just bump your chances of getting in up to 100%. IvyLeagueForEveryone, right?
** The line has been drawn at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_college_admissions_bribery_scandal falsifying information to make the applicants look better, though.]]
* The American [[TheGildedAge Gilded Age]] from about 1870 to the 1890s was ''filled'' with this trope, as corporations at the time were constantly forming trusts, bribing the government, and doing whatever they could to stay above punishment. Some examples:
** Boss Tweed ran Tammany Hall in the 1870s and decided to avert being clever by getting massive amounts of money, and then just liberally bribing everyone who could conceivably get in the way. Why be [[TheChessmaster sophisticated]] about your crimes when you can just make a lot of money? He was only undone when a pesky muckraker with a sense of morals decided to bring him down.
** The entire railroad industry was owned by the Vanderbilts, one of whom [[BeamMeUpScotty allegedly]] said "Public be damned!" They would organize their railroads based on whoever could offer enough money and could force prices up at a whim. The government didn't act out against them until antitrust legislation was finally introduced over a decade after they gained power.
** The absolute king of using money to flout rules, though, was Standard Oil owner John D. Rockefeller, businessman extraordinaire and, for a long time, ''the'' richest person in the history of the world (at his wealthiest, his net worth, when adjusted for inflation, was $900 BILLION DOLLARS. That's "billion" with a "b"). Rockefeller was famous for being absolutely ruthless in terms of absorbing or killing the competition. His favorite tactic was to literally flood local oil fields with his own supply, destroying their owners at a loss to himself, but ultimately gaining by forcing them out of business and then seizing their land. Rockefeller also used money to [[VillainWithGoodPublicity build a stellar reputation]] by driving his limousine to random street corners and handing out dimes to children, which were worth far more in his era than they are in the 21st century. Rockefeller was finally brought down by famed muckraking journalist Ida B. Tarbell, who spent years compiling in-depth research on his business. Her news articles, compiled as ''A History of Standard Oil Company'', exposed Rockefeller's countless illegal dealings; that story, coupled with new anti-trust regulation, finally prompted action against Standard Oil and put an end to his stranglehold on the world's fuel supply.
** As a general rule, many of the "robber barons"--Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, and their ilk--used this trope to rewrite history. Towards the end of their lives, they set their families up with their own fortunes, then donated massive sums to public works and artistic endeavors (Vanderbilt University, Carnegie Hall, and the like) to enshrine their reputations as generous philanthropists. Thanks to the work of the muckrakers, their actions are carefully documented, but they were still able to portray themselves as heroes who cared about the common man, and their legacies live on in the projects they funded.
* Steve Jobs had a tendency to drive without a license plate and park (crookedly) in handicap spaces, [[http://www.cultofmac.com/steve-jobs-still-parking-in-handicapped-spaces-the-pictures/2613 and get away with it]][[note]] It may have been his building, but handicapped spaces are protected by State and Federal law[[/note]]. Why didn't he just designate some spots as executive parking at the Apple lot if he hated walking that much?
* Peter Odili and James Ibori, two former Governors of oil-rich States in Nigeria (Rivers and Delta, respectively) went to court after leaving office and secured unconstitutional injunctions rendering them immune from prosecution for ANY crime committed during their tenures as governor. Including corruption. Forever.
* Season ticket holders for major league sports teams can have arena giveaway items mailed to them; those with club seats at indoor arenas can have their food brought to them. Many teams also offer early arena entry, priority playoff seating, etc.
* While today the UsefulNotes/AcademyAward lobbying is very public and spendful, the book ''Pictures at a Revolution'' shows that in the 1960s, it was much easier to manipulate the Academy when it was half the size it was today - and in Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox's case, when many of the voters are in your payroll. Fox got Best Picture noms for unremarkable films such as ''Film/TheSandPebbles'', ''Film/{{Cleopatra}}'', and ''Film/DoctorDolittle'' (which, as told in the book, the studio held 16 days with free screenings with dinner for Academy members).
** The bribery didn't stop with Fox. Universal also used expensive dinners to bribe Oscar voters to nominate their flop ''Theatre/AnneOfTheThousandDays'' for the major awards (it only won an Oscar for Costume Design). Warner Bros. was also accused of this for getting the Academy to nominate ''[[Literature/ExtremelyLoudAndIncrediblyClose Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close]]'' for Best Picture because of its negative reception; the organization had already stopped accepting bribes by then.
** The current lobbying is said to have started with [[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/harvey-weinstein-steven-spielberg-nastiest-oscar-campaign-ever-1187125 the most aggressive campaign possible]], as Harvey Weinstein went all the way to ensure the well-made, audience-pleasing ''Film/ShakespeareInLove'' took Best Picture from the widely acclaimed highest-grossing movie of the year ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan'', featuring a "press blitzkrieg" saturating the pre-ceremony months with events endorsing the film, going after individual Academy members with both a dedicated phone line and sending VHS screeners, and a downright smear campaign trying to AccentuateTheNegative about its opponent.
* This supposedly could even go so far as getting you into Heaven; in the 14th through 16th centuries in Catholic Europe, you could buy "indulgences", a kind of get-out-of-jail-free card for a specific sin, you didn't have to worry about getting punished for it. Or so some people claimed (and many people believed): the Church's official line (then and now) was that indulgences are only for remission of temporal--i.e. earthly--punishment for some sin you had committed or would commit. It was more "donate some money and you can get out of having to go through that whole annoying business of confession and penance" than "give us money and you won't have to go to Purgatory." Then the Protestant Reformation came along--in part because a German bishop kinda-sorta counted on people misunderstanding the true meaning of the indulgence to get people to buy them and pay for his new cathedral and palace--and [[DarthWiki/RuinedFOREVER ruined everything]].
* Any online video game that [[PayToWin lets players buy in-game items or abilities with real-life money]] falls squarely into the trope. Want to reach the end game but are too lazy or unskilled to do so? Just spend a few extra dollars and you're on your way to being as powerful as the next player who spent many months or even years trying to reach the same level of power! This is even worse in player VS player games where a match can be determined by who spent more money to win. A few games even take this further where players can break a rule or two and get away with it as long as they don't do it openly, simply because they paid a lot (although this is mostly averted).
* A term that's gaining in popularity is "Affluenza", where someone's wealth is claimed to lead to moral decay because of their firm belief in this trope. This proved controversial in 2013 when it was used as a legal defense [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Couch in a drunk driving incident]] that killed 4 pedestrians and injured two others. Even worse is that it was (largely) successful, netting the 17-year-old boy at the wheel a comparatively light 10 years' probation, community service, and rehab - at a $500,000 a year facility with a plethora of possible activities. This has led to widespread speculation on the Internet that the teen's rich parents might have bribed the judge in order to make such a ludicrous defense work. Additionally, while the facility he rehabbed in cost $715 ''per day'', his parents were ordered to pay only $1,150 a ''month'' - roughly 5% of the actual cost, leaving the rest (presumably) to the taxpayers.
* One political cartoon from the [[http://pixgood.com/1920s-political-cartoons-prohibition.html Prohibition era]] featured a line of people with some connection to law enforcement (from the officer on the beat to the magistrate and the legislator who passed the law), each with an open hand behind his back waiting for his bribe.
* When ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'' made him a millionaire, William M. Gaines let his hair grow long, his beard grow scraggly, wore the same style of clunky horn-rim glasses for the rest of his life, and steadfastly refused to wear a suit-coat or tie.
* More than one person who has won a major lottery jackpot has simply quit their job immediately, even if they were supposed to give notice.
* Owners of expensive sports cars tend to [[DrivesLikeCrazy speed, drag race and ignore traffic laws]]. Though if you search on Website/YouTube for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2l6nk7pMQ0 "supercar fails"]], many of these drivers find out the hard way that [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome no amount of money can buy them exemptions from the laws of physics]]. They have closed race tracks for a reason.
** Similarly, [[https://psychology.berkeley.edu/news/tsk-tsk-how-wealthy-misbehave a study published by the Psychology Department of the University of California-Berkeley]] found that wealthy drivers were more likely to commit traffic violations.
--->“In two field studies on driving behavior, upper-class motorists were found to be four times more likely than the other drivers to cut off other vehicles at a busy four-way intersection and three times more likely to cut off a pedestrian waiting to enter a crosswalk."
* Inverted in some parts of the world: Screw The Rules, I ''Don't'' Have Money!. For example, where motorcycles are more common than cars and mark them as middle-lower income class, you will tend to find them more blatantly disregarding the traffic rules. Going against the normal direction in a one-way street is just the tip of the iceberg, and their excuse is often that motorcycles are easier to handle than a car and they can afford to do such stunts, or that they're less privileged and thus should be exempt from certain rules.
* In a rare non-villainous example, the multi-billionaire industrialist and aviator Howard Hughes was a big fan of the "throwing money on a problem until it goes away" method of problem-solving as it was simpler and faster than going through the proper channels. As his OCD worsened in his later years, he would do things like buying an entire casino to make them remove a neon-lit sign, as it was shining through his bedroom window and disturbing his sleep; and buying the TV station KLAS so that he can order them to show the movies that he wanted to watch (it was usually ''Film/IceStationZebra'').
** One particularly funny example is when he rented out two entire floors of the Desert Inn hotel for ten days in Las Vegas. When the hotel staff tried convincing Hughes to check out and leave (since the floors he was renting were usually rented to high rollers, who would bring the hotel far greater profits than someone who didn't gamble), he bought out the entire hotel from under them and declared he would leave when he damn well felt like it.
* Joseph Joanovici, a Romanian Jew, was able to become an honorary Aryan during the Nazi occupation of France thanks to being a billionaire who [[LesCollaborateurs sold iron to Nazi Germany]]. He also [[PlayingBothSides financed the resistance on top of getting a Gestapo card]] thanks to his wealth which avoided him a harsher sentence when his Nazi affiliation and war profiteering came to light (he got five years of prison reduced to 3 and was one of the few Jewish people banned from Israel). One anecdote about him is that when the Carlingue's leader brought up he was a Jew he asked how much would it cost to not be one.
* While [[OlderThanTheyThink far from the first case of such a thing happening]] on WebSite/YouTube, Logan Paul's controversial video opened a ''lot'' of peoples' eyes to the fact that, despite being in direct violation of Youtube's [=ToS=], Youtube will happily turn a blind eye to blatant violations, as long as your videos bring in a lot of viewers and thus ad revenue.
** In fact, this has been all but [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/08/09/youtubes-arbitrary-standards-stars-keep-making-money-even-after-breaking-rules/ confirmed]] by former moderation of WebSite/YouTube. Logan Paul was shown tazing a rat and only got away with a 90-day suspension, while WebVideo/IDubbbzTV has used several derogatory terms and offensive humor in his videos and barely got any punishments ''at all''. People with fewer subscribers have reported getting demonetized or even banned ''indefinitely'' for ''mentioning'' things like true crime.
* Twitter often comes under fire for its slipshod moderation and its hesitation to suspend or ban people who break the rules. This rings all the more true for celebrities and politicians, who regularly flout the site's rules but rarely suffer any consequences for it. Twitter officials say this method is to protect and encourage free speech, but critics argue it's more likely that they simply prefer the high levels of traffic created by high-profile controversies started on the site and the large amounts of ad revenue they receive from it.
* Twitch is also criticised for the same reason - Twitch is just fine when a big streamer does things that would earn a smaller streamer a ban due to the amount of advertisement revenue. This overlaps strongly with ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections.
* While there is a specific trope for Video games [[PayToWin allowing you to get better equipment or more resources for paying]], there is a much different way: Video game moderation. Video game moderators are already ''very'' reluctant to actually punish troublemakers especially since they [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming tell people to just block them rather than do anything bad]]. But when the game is supported by [[https://www.alistdaily.com/strategy/mobile-gaming-whales-fitting-new-descriptors/ Whales]], certain players are objectively ''worth more'' to the company than others due to them investing so much money. Essentially, being a Whale is also a good way to avoid receiving any kind of significant recompense for your behaviour, allowing for greater fuckery. ''WebAnimation/ExtraCredits'' even expressed concerns that this could happen.
** Streamers and [=YouTubers=] have also been reported flouting the rules and getting away with it. People have released videos and streams demonstrating how easy it is to break the rules in games, and the worst they have received is a temporary ban or even a chat ban. Other users who have done minor things have even received permanent bans, but [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist since most of these games are free to start]], come back with a new name and a new face within the day.
* In the mid-1990s, [=McDonald's=] lost a lawsuit against a South African businessman opening up hundreds of fake franchises of the chain because the real chain was not operating in South Africa during Apartheid, they had forfeited their own trademarks in South Africa and the businessman in question had effectively managed to acquire them post-abandonment. [=McDonald's=], instead of filing another lawsuit or appealing to the court, chose to buy the businessman's fake operation and turn it into a real [=McDonald's=] franchise.
* During the "Hoverboard-mania" of 2015-16, multiple (mostly Chinese) companies producing self-balancing scooters/"hoverboards" got entangled in legal battles over the patents related to the devices, including the inventor of the "hoverboard" Dan Chen and even Segway, who asserted that they held the patents to a self-balancing scooter. One Chinese manufacturer, Ninebot, instead of trying to help resolve the legal battle, chose to ''buy Segway''.
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