Donald Trump’s charitable foundation may not have secured the right paperwork to solicit public money. If that is the case, Trump’s “great”, charitable work, would be exposed as illegal, and he a conman.

The most recent revelations, exposed by the Washington Post, have shone a light on the murky underworld of the Republican’s so-called foundation, a semi-legal entity which funnels money from one charity to another, taking a healthy cut of the transactions to fund his own lawsuits, pleasures and questionable payments to district attorneys.

Yet, he says he only spends half an hour per week managing the money.

New York State prohibits unregistered foundations from raising more than $25,000 per year. Available tax records over the last decade reveal that Trump – the professional middleman – brought in more than the threshold per year.

The accusations surrounding the foundation range from the damning to the bizarre.

At a fundraiser in Florida – a fundraiser for the Trump Foundation – a speed portrait artist drew one of Trump. Trump bought it – using thousands of dollars from the Trump Foundation.

Cher talks about Donald Trump

And why did he spend charitable money to buy a signed NFL helmet? How did he get away with donating $25,000 to Republican Florida district attorney Pam Bondi just as her office was considering whether or not to investigate Trump University?

Trump, in fact, has more important questions to answer than a journalist could write in a whole notepad. Some of them were addressed at the first presidential debate by Hillary Clinton.

Why has Trump not released his tax returns? She asked.

“They’re under audit,” he huffed.

Why has Trump not paid federal income tax?

“That makes me smart,” he replied.

Why was Trump rooting for the housing crisis, so he could swoop in and make a killing on the fallen value of property?

“That’s called business, by the way,” he retorted.

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The candidate with an answer for everything might find it relatively easy to evade hard answers in front of an audience of 100 million viewers, but it will be much harder for the Republican nominee to get around the latest big questions centring on his foundation.

New York State attorney Eric Scheiderman has the power to order his charity to stop raising money immediately, if it is discovered Trump did not have the right paperwork after all.

Schneiderman could also force Trump to reimburse money that his foundation has already raised.

In that case, it could be Trump’s undoing.