I'd be interested in reading the book to get more detail on that. Sale and leasebacks (which often include buyback options) are a fairly common capital management measurement in the asset finance sector.[0] GE could have been committing fraud or this could be sensationalist reporting of a mundane financial management technique.
Great points. It depends on how confident you are in the claim that the primary purpose was “artificially boost quarterly profits.” No particular evidence presented in the excerpt.
Claiming the sales as a profit in the above situation is dubious. When I leaseback an asset I previously owned, I am taking a long term liability which is larger than the profit. This is totally fine in the case of something like an office building - a company probably won’t be around or be fit for the lifetime of the building - but dubious for core company assets.
For a car? A car will definitely not outlast most viable companies. What if it's cars for a car rental company? I believe the car would be a core company asset then. But if you don't label it as revenue, what DO you label it as? I'm not an accountant, only have rudimentary accounting knowledge, but don't see any options other than revenue there.
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaseback