Exploring Sustainability (ESG) Fraud: A Taxonomy-Centered Study of Real-World Cases

One of the emerging and rapidly increasing critical issues in the context of sustainability for stakeholders is sustainability fraud. This form of fraud has posed a growing threat to Governments, Standard-Setters, Investors, Corporations, and all other stakeholders recently. It is the new face or era of fraud in Today’s World. Sustainability fraud contains some wrong, dishonest and misleading ways or methods that emerged in the form of fraud on the way to becoming an excellent business in meeting the requirements of the mandated environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures and reporting standards. This form of fraud encompasses dishonest, misleading, and unethical actions that arise during efforts to comply with ESG requirements, thus representing a transition from excellence to fraud. The purpose of this paper is to offer a comprehensive understanding and conceptual framework on sustainability fraud within the fields of Business Management & Accounting, addressing its distinct characteristics. The study in the paper reviews the current literature surrounding the sustainability fraud landscape, and includes a comparative analysis of sustainability fraud and traditional forms of fraud. In addition, the study reveals key patterns and focal spot dimensions of sustainability fraud on a taxonomy- centered case study analyses. Given that sustainability fraud remains an underdeveloped and relatively unexplored topic in both academia and practice, the findings of the study are expected to offer meaningful insights and contribute considerable value to the ongoing discourse in this evolving landscape of sustainability fraud.