I'd say that it is possible to find some ambiguities in the FL statement, but nearly impossible NOT to find ambiguities in Pinnacle's recent statements.
If it was an additional 15 points that was at stake, just say this loud and clear.
The whole way Fialka was rolled out to add "weight" and "substance" and the existence of a "few hundred million" was left entirely as a matetr of faith sugegsts to me that finance had become a major problem.
I'm not sure about the conspirac theories re: hoax/prank. My guess would be that the "few hundred million" was a bit optimistic in the first place - and fell away pretty quickly. Lynam and others were desperately scrambling to shore this up, but failed abysmally to do so.