Why is a settlement even allowed? If I tried walking out of Walmart with nothing more than an unpaid TV under the arm I'm looking at criminal charges. If someon

Why is a settlement even allowed? If I tried walking out of Walmart with nothing more than an unpaid TV under the arm I'm looking at criminal charges. If someone drove away with a truck with 10000 TVs for Walmart (midrange, USD 400 each) and got caught they will look at a lengthy stay in prison. But SpaceX gets to settle. They need a dedicated prison-goer, like the Yakuza have. This kind of misbehaviour is what criminal charges (as opposed to civil charges) are designed for.