Now, 1.9B isn't nothing, but for a company with this type of income, and a market cap of around £130B, and profits in the 10's of billions... it approaches it.
Can you imagine an individual being arrested for this type of behavior, and in the end losing only 5 weeks of income with no jailtime?
Too big to fail. Too big to arrest. Too big to shutdown. Congrats to the banking industry, you've won.
If they estimated they have made $1 billion from the scheme, doubling that is a little lenient, but not totally out of the question.
Unfortunately it is impossible to judge the situation without all of the facts. Nearly anything sounds damning when you know that guilt is involved.
Personal things are different, laws have an easier time sticking hard penalties to people. You can't throw a company in jail, for a number of reasons. And since it is hard to pin anybody for it, you have to go back to an "appropriate" fine.
Just as people are hugely disincentivized to do illegal activity for fear that it will totally destroy their lives. Companies however have no such fear. There's little personal liability, and at worst there's a ding to profit for the year and investors grumble a bit. But overall, its just a headache- not a severe deterrent to acting poorly in the end.
I mean, what if we did actually throw executives in jail? Even for short periods of time (3-6 months?) It could create a culture where from the top they would have incentive to support only completely above-board behavior.
It's just bidness.
Dispensaries and even their landlords, doing things that are explicitly legal under state laws, run the risk of losing everything and/or going to jail if the local US Attorney has a bad day.