Near Pure Evils who have managed to get away with their crimes, either by winning (main goals succeeded, the hero was defeated) or by escaping adequate punishment (being defeated but not brought to justice, by running away or by escaping prison if they were imprisoned).

Deceased and Presumed Deceased villains do not count as Karma Houdinis unless their death was of natural causes (Oh Il-nam, Sozin and Pharaoh Seti I), if they are more likely to have survived and escaped rather than died (Flumpty Bumpty and Jason Voorhees), or if their Karma Houdini status is dependent on version where they are a Karma Houdini in one ending and are defeated in another, which also includes Karma Houdini status dependent upon player choice when one or more outcomes where they able to escape unpunished and other outcomes they get killed (e.g. Riba), another case is if the villain is killed by another villain/Near Pure Evil or a neutral character before they were punished CANNOT count even if they didn't get caught by a more powerful character (e.g. Plankton). This also applies to villains who killed themselves.