Jimmy, I don't doubt your story (you wouldn't make things up, I'm certain of that); but who exactly made that claim?
"Ricoh representatives" is too generic, perhaps a Pentax dealer made it up from some misinterpreted nth hand information. I would trust only what I'm hearing from Ricoh Imaging Japan officials, or what I'm hearing from other, trusted channels
Publishing the specifications months ahead of the official announcement is definitely atypical - we'd usually have them just before the announcement date, as they're sent to dealers all over the world. They will have to predict exactly the specs, some for features still in development. But the worst - it will steal the show for the official announcement.