The New York State Attorney General is expanding its investigation into the Trump Organization.
As a spokesman for Attorney General Letitia James announced on Tuesday, the company, in which the business activities of former President Donald Trump are bundled, are no longer only under civil but also criminal investigations.
"We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigations into the company are no longer of a purely civil nature," said spokesman Fabien Levy.
"We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization at the criminal level, together with the Manhattan District Attorney."
Hush money, tax evasion, fraud?
The Manhattan Public Prosecutor's Office has been investigating the Trump Organization, a holding company made up of hundreds of sole proprietorships from hotels to golf courses, for a long time.
Now this and the state investigation are being merged.
The investigation by Manhattan's District Attorney Cyrus Vance initially focused on hush money payments to two women who said they had affairs with Trump years ago.
In the meantime, Vance is also investigating suspected tax evasion as well as banking and insurance fraud.
Since March, he has also had the long withheld tax returns from the former US president.
Trump had tried all legal means to prevent the financial documents from being released and had twice gone to the Supreme Court.
He describes himself as a victim of a politically motivated "witch hunt" by the Democrats of his successor Joe Biden.