I once had a (majority-share) cofounder CEO who, when the company hit success, became extremely controlling with the books and investor relationships. There was no way for the rest of the cofounders - let alone engineering - to know what was actually going on or what the true state of health of the company was. I (and the other cofounders, and the senior engineering staff) walked away. Big life lesson.

With lazy enough investors, it wouldn't surprise me that a CEO/owner could compartmentalize enough information that the employees and investors might have totally different understandings. The CFO would be suspect, though.