That misses the point: it's effectively a (cheap) speeding ticket for bad behavior over the life of the company. It would be a bargain at twice the price from their point of view.
Yea, and it might be that this slap on the wrists prevents any real punishment from ever being dealt out - that's what pisses me off, whenever the government goes into a non-prosecution agreement or a fine without admittance of wrong doing... it's actually lowering the potential liabilities outstanding of the company unjustly.
Finland, Switzerland, and the UK are the first three places that pop into my mind where speeding tickets are calculated based on the income of the offender.
You'd have to be caught going way above the limit to be fined above 1 month of pay, but it's possible.
Even worse, in this model they can effectively just build in the cost of the fines in the business model. It's just a cost of doing business at this point.
I'm sorry, but this shit isn't going to end until the U.S. actually punishes white collar crime. Fines _do not_ work.