Falsification of financial statements in Russian manufacturing enterprises in 2012–2019

This paper considers the falsification of financial reports at Russian manufacturing enterprises in the period from 2012 to 2019. The factors are associated with the heterogeneity of estimates of falsified financial statements. We examine the evolution of corporate fraud during the period under review with a special focus on the correlation between false reporting and sanctions crisis of 2014. We identify two main lines of corporate behavior in relation to falsified corporate reporting: a consistently «honest» strategy characteristic of no more than 30–60% of enterprises, or situational behavior, when an enterprise provides either reliable or questionable data in certain years depending on the circumstances. For large and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises, the quality of reporting provided has generally improved in the sanction period of 2015–2019 compared to the pre-sanction period. Drawing on econometric calculations, we demonstrate that the main factors associated with provision of inaccurate reporting are the size of an enterprise, and the growth rate of accounts receivable in previous years.