How I understand it GM took funds out from a second account to repay the first loan and claimed they paid it back in full, whereas in truth they simply created a second loan
I don't really believe any profit numbers as it's so easy to fake them. GM could say they had profits in a quarter and simply took TARP money and rolled in over into an account and called it profit. I've seen plenty of other companies do that. The other big one is lay a bunch of people off and call that profit too, as you no longer have to pay overhead costs for them. Pfizer is big with that one. Save $8 million in payroll. "Hey, we profited $8 more million this quarter! Let's tell Wall Street!" Whereas the product sales went not up but down but through tricky book keeping, they can declare profits. I'd like to see sales figures. That's probably the best way to tell profit or equity in the market.