It is an intriguing possibility, but I think you a

It is an intriguing possibility, but I think you are complicating things. Rawnoc's take on it is probably most accurate in terms of what internet readers take from the document. TBG on the other board is saying that any statement about any investors, whales or RKT or otherwise, as an intended audience does not fit with the purpose of the document as an internal JBI document. Internal until "leaked", that is. He is saying that is is one of the things, amongst others, that makes the document less than totally believable.

The first paragraph of the summary is written in the third person. It is a storybook approach that assumes the reader knows nothing. If it was done for JBI, that would not be the case. Most often these studies are done to determine the best allocation of internal capital. It would not make a difference whether or not it was coming from outside in terms of an investment or not. The basic theory is if the Rate of Return is higher than the Hurdle Rate (Cost of Capital) - same thing as the cost to borrow from a bank, then go ahead and do the project. In practise, the ROR to go forward needs to be much higher than the Hurdle Rate, like 20-30%.

IMO if the third-party engineering firm knows that the company needs the money to expand, or that investors were relying on the results, it would only cause confusion, erode their objectivity, and potentially cause a Conflict of Interest.