Excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor...

The SEC then came back with a settlement agreement that the company could live with.

Didn't you mean to say that the company agreed to settlement terms that the SEC could live with.

Hardly any cases go to trial.  That has always been true.  Settlements are the norm.  To say that the words "future violations of certain provisions of the federal securities laws, including the antifraud" do not mean the same as "to stop engagin in fraud in the future" is ludicrous.