It’s not necessarily lying, but it’s certainly deceptive.

Not even deceptive. This is relatively normal business practice.

It’s easier to think of this as “project risk” as opposed to corporate risk overall.

This isn’t different than creating a subsidiary to embark on a new program, with its own debts and assets, collateralized by a parent company.

It’s effectively the same as what happens every time a major movie studio starts a new film project.