That sure looks like there was a fire on that board, and the fact that you never plugged it in can only lead to one believing that they were being run at BA's facilities.  Add in the fact that they said that they are no longer testing customer machines and it looks like the lie that they have never run customer equipment has been overturned.

Perhaps that is an LED that doesn't need any power and is black and that is why the board looks burned...?

EDIT:  It would probably be a good idea for everyone to check their boards for obvious failures such as the above prior to plugging them in at all, that would probably have burned down GPK's house had he not checked the board and just plugged it in.