If Tether has not done anything shady, then why did they pay a settlement to the New York AG?

https://twitter.com/Tether_to/status/1364197571300913153?s=20

The tweet says, on the one hand, that they admit to no wrongdoing (and a subsequent tweet says they have never issued unbacked tokens). But in the other hand, the same tweet also says they paid out an $18M settlement to "resolve the matter".

Why pay out a settlement if they had done nothing wrong? And while we are at it, can you really just "settle" with the New York AG? Isn't the whole point of the AG that they should not accept any settlement, but should instead prosecute law breakers to maintain a well ordered society? Isn't a settlement with the AG a bribe by any other name?

Maybe it's just simple extortion. Maybe Tether is squeaky clean, but the AG is telling them to fork over $18M or the AG will keep making their lives miserable with legal nonsense ("the process IS the punishment")?

So many unanswered questions.