Securities-fraud cases--especially criminal ones--are fundamentally different because they require the jury to find executives acted with mensrea, or guilty intent.
In many criminal cases, the common-law requirement that a defendant must have a mensrea (ie, he must or should know that he is doing wrong) has been weakened or erased.
There is incredible irony that CBS made this announcement the same day that it submitted its legal brief before the Third Circuit Court declaring that there was no mensrea to air an indecent Super Bowl broadcast.