IANAL (though I do read Matt Levine, and I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night) but my understanding is that yeah it's securities fraud if you are a public company because you are reporting sales numbers that are essentially fake, thereby defrauding the investing public.
Is it just regular fraud if you're not a public company? Or if you are a public company and do juke your sales stats this way, but are open about it in your public filings? Not sure.
> Is it just regular fraud if you're not a public company?
I don't think it is regular fraud in and of itself.
I think it is likely to become fraud when you use sales figures including undisclosed self-dealing to support any financial transaction or anything else from which you receive something of value from someone else, and where those sales figures are a material factor.
Is it just regular fraud if you're not a public company? Or if you are a public company and do juke your sales stats this way, but are open about it in your public filings? Not sure.