Lets see, at first she was claiming that it was not about the money and no civil suit would be filed but she didn't take the (criminal) case all the way. Then she files a civil suit, not in Colorado where the incident happend because they have something like $700k settlement limit, but in Orange County California, where there are no limits. Hmmmmmmm.
Now, I'm sure Kobe ain't a squeeky clean guy, he probably has some things that he'd rather not have come out in public, so he'd rather pay 3-4 mil and keep whatever bit of his "good" image that he may have left. I would really, really, really question that rape accusation though.