Is that true? I'm not a lawyer, but I know that in certain criminal plea agreements, such as in antitrust cases, the financial penalty can be paid over installments, the size of which is tied to the company's financial performance. See e.g.

> If the parties agree that the recommended fine needs to be paid in installments because of the defendant's inability to pay the entire amount immediately, the plea agreement will include the installment schedule and any interest terms.(58) The payment of a special assessment(59) and any recommendation on a term of probation(60) or expedited sentencing(61) for corporations, or requests by individual defendants to be placed in a specific correctional facility,(62) will also be addressed in the plea agreement.

https://www.justice.gov/atr/speech/us-model-negotiated-plea-...

And to get back to the original comment I replied to, this critique seems like it would apply to any financial punishment, not something that came down to a technical distinction between "fine" and "financial penalty".