[bambax]

> Most public company data is unstructured and textual.

This is surprising to me.

Wouldn't it be possible to make a very short list of, say, 12 blunt questions that would help flag fraud?

Of course the company could be lying in the answers. (If it was found to be lying in any one answer then it would automatically be flagged as "high risk".)

But this may not even be needed, since what you seem to be saying is that the information about fraud is there in plain sight, yet hard to see, because it is drowned in fluff and periphrases.

Is there an opportunity for a private company, say a rating company, to make and distribute such a questionnaire? Or does it already exist in some form?

[HeatherJudd]

An interesting idea. I'm not sure if say 12 or so questions could cover the risks, or it if would just add one more data point for people to (not) read?

There are certainly some sorts of transactions that are much more risky than others - so having an easy source for these transactions would be useful (and we'd built it into our models). But often the signals are more subtle. Companies with overly aggressive accounting policies across the board tend to have completely different undisclosed problems. Since there are estimates and judgement involved in all areas of accounting looking at the aggregate impact of all policies can be important.

On adding more information - The SEC adopted rules to modernize disclosures of risk factors in 2020, requiring a summary risk factor disclosure if the risk factor section exceeds 15 pages (https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2020-192).

[bambax]

> or it if would just add one more data point for people to (not) read?

Intuitively fraud should be correlated to specific accounting practices, or maybe simply to the number of hours billed by the auditors, who are likely to charge more if the work is more "complicated"... Disclosing the amount paid to auditors could be one of those questions.

An analogy would be the "Joel Test" (2000) [1]; checklists in general, and direct questions, are much more revealing than blurb written by the target or a communications agency.

My two cents.

[1] https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/08/09/the-joel-test-12-s...