Honore de Balzac said that "Behind every great fortune lies a great crime". And you can extend your list above to include Bill Gates of Microsoft and Steve Jobs of Apple and many others. However, there are also many great companies that have been created without having to resort to doing anything illegal. And there are also lots of people who tried to break the law and got caught. My advice to you is that it's always easier (and safer) to work legally within the system, than to try to fight it. So look for an idea that you can implement that doesn't require breaking the law, and look very skeptically at one that requires you to potentially break it.