All corporate accounting has some amount of bending the rules. Conferences and team meetings at high end resorts which are not counted as compensation for example. The rules exist because of people like the Enron bean counters who spent their time and energy scamming the system rather than actually building something.

It is fine if you don't like Elon or how he runs his company, but it is absurd to suggest that this is a shell company and not an actual effort to improve recycling technology.