Comparison of Environmental Law Violations and Accounting Abuses by Russian Enterprises

Article history Received: 21 January 2019 Accepted: 26 February 2019 Published Online: 19 April 2019 Sustainable development requires overcoming opportunist behavior of economic entities towards environmental compartments. Another form of opportunist behavior is revealed in fraudulent financial reporting. The research objective is statistical comparison of environmental law violation against accounting abuses by Russian enterprises. A research hypothesis is put forward that companies, that violated environmental law, prepare financial reporting mostly incorrectly. An exploratory sampling from the economic entities of Russia, that violated environmental law in the course of various activities, was formed. Financial reporting of the sampling companies was analyzed by virtue of the authorial probit regression model, making it possible to reveal accounting misstatements, both overreporting and underreporting. The obtained results make it possible to assess the interrelations between the environmental law violations and financial reporting.