In many countries, it is illegal for lawyers to charge a percentage of the obtained damages. But in the US, a lawyer can propose: "I'll help you suing this bastard for free if I get half of the awarded damages." This incentivizes US lawyers to be more confrontational and to seek higher damages than anywhere else.

Edit, found this: "FinCEN today assessed a $110 million civil money penalty against BTC-e for willfully violating U.S. anti-money laundering (AML) laws. Alexander Vinnik was assessed $12 million for his role in the violations." In the US, government agencies can keep such fines for themselves, providing them with a nice incentive to go after such cases.