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Actual fines and settlements added up to about $500 million.

Given those charges were used to leverage $22M in settlements and a wide recall of the product, something outside the mere $1k seems to have been a useful bludgeon.

> In January 2008, the state and the office of United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Michael Sullivan, reached a settlement with the contractors responsible for the failure, which included no criminal charges and no bar against receiving future contracts. The Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff joint venture paid $405 million, and smaller contractors paid a total of $51 million.

They ended up settling with the contractors for much more.