I'm thinking that the US Government would have a much 
  harder time prosecuting a high-profile, wealthy CEO 

  "Only One Big Telecom CEO Refused To Cave To The NSA ... 
   And He's Been In Jail For 4 Years

  We know what happened in the case of QWest before 9/11. 
  They contacted the CEO/Chairman asking to wiretap all the 
  customers.  After he consulted with Legal, he refused.  As 
  a result, NSA canceled a bunch of unrelated billion dollar 
  contracts that QWest was the top bidder for.  And then the 
  DoJ targeted him and prosecuted him and put him in prison 
  for insider trading -- on the theory that he knew of
  anticipated income from secret programs that QWest was 
  planning for the government, while the public didn't 
  because it was classified and he couldn't legally tell 
  them, and then he bought or sold QWest stock
  knowing those things.

  This CEO's name is Joseph P. Nacchio and TODAY he's still 
  serving a trumped-up 6-year federal prison sentence today 
  for quietly refusing an NSA demand to massively wiretap 
  his customers.