Throughout this election, pundits and critics have speculated about Donald Trump’s motivations for refusing to release his tax returns. On countless occasions, the G.O.P. nominee has asserted that an ongoing I.R.S. audit of his finances is preventing him from making his filings public, despite the fact that there is no law that prohibits their release during an audit. (His returns from the years 2002 to 2008 are reportedly no longer under review, either.) Many have hypothesized that the billionaire’s tax returns might reveal questionable financial partnerships associated with his sprawling business interests.

With few legal documents available for reporters to examine, the Trump Organization, which is the primary source of the Republican’s billion-dollar fortune, has remained largely shrouded in mystery. But according to a Newsweek investigation by Vanity Fair contributor Kurt Eichenwald, the Trump family concern is a minefield of potential conflicts of interest, which would create a web of convoluted—and potentially intractable—contractual ties between a President Trump and numerous foreign governments.

While Trump has promised that, if elected president, he would leave the Trump Organization in the control of his adult children, it would be impossible for him not to know about his company’s myriad past and ongoing business relationships. Unless he dissolves his company entirely—something Trump has said he will not do—the Republican would find himself constantly having to decide between what is best for his family’s bottom line and what is best for the United States, in his dealings with dozens of countries around the world.

South Korea

In April, Trump argued that South Korea and Japan should acquire their own nuclear weapons, taking some of the pressure off the United States to defend them. That policy, should it go into effect, would benefit the Trump Organization, Newsweek reports. In the 1990s, the Trump Organization entered into a business deal with Daewoo Engineering and Construction, wherein it paid for the right to use the Trump name for six condominium properties in Seoul and two other cities, Newsweek reports. But the South Korean firm also has an active role in nuclear fuel enrichment and energy generation in the country, and would likely benefit from a renewed nuclear-weapons program. Daewoo Engineering and Construction’s parent company, the Daewoo Group, later fell into bankruptcy, prompting revisions of its contract with the Trump Organization, but the two entities remain tied.

India

The Trump Organization has been involved in a handful of development deals in India, leading to close ties with several political parties and powerful individuals in the country, Newsweek reports. One such connection is allegedly to Madhukar Tulsi, the head of real-estate company Ireo, who in 2010 was investigated for suspected ties to Sudhanshu Mittal. Mittal, then the leader of the country’s second-largest political party, was suspected of being involved in a scheme to funnel money earned from India’s hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games—a sort of mini-Olympics for the former British Empire—through tax havens and into Ireo development projects, Newsweek reports.

Charges were not brought in the case against either Tulsi or Mittal (the latter denied any involvement in the alleged Commonwealth Games scandal), but the investigation highlights how a President Trump could easily find himself entangled in foreign politics. The Trump Organization reportedly has several other major real-estate projects planned in India; at least one, a licensing deal with Panchshil Realty to build two 22-story towers in Pune, has run into trouble with local authorities over a land dispute. A Trump administration could easily make the ongoing investigation go away.