Those are irrelevant facts in this case. Accounts match. PWC would notice. The issue is that Tesla didn’t disclose any sales or “material” asset impairments t

Those are irrelevant facts in this case. Accounts match. PWC would notice. The issue is that Tesla didn’t disclose any sales or “material” asset impairments that would account for the missing $1.4bn. The sum is so large that it would have to be disclosed. It's a huge red flag, caused either by weak internal controls, or classification of operating expenses as investment to make the books look better than normal. It's an indicator of accounting misstatement, not an accounting error. TL;DR Tesla may be bullshitting in it's financial statement, or they made huge errors somewhere.