To be honest- at this point BFL is a functioning company with R&D costs like any other. If this new revelation explains anything, I think it more likely explains why they needed to offer pre-orders: with a history of Mail Fraud it might be impossible for BFL to get outside venture capital, or even borrow money from the bank, thus the community pre-order's bankroll the next iteration of equipment.
Inaba stated that that preorders were not used to fund development and that outside investments (VC, etc) were taken.
It's a condition of Sonny's parole that he has to make available to his parole officer the financial records of any business enterprise with which he's involved. If they're telling the truth about development not being funded by pre-orders, Sonny's parole officer should be able to confirm that by reviewing BFL's financial records.