PHILADELPHIA — The Pennsylvania attorney general's office is investigating a charity at the center of the ongoing corruption trial of a former state senator, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods was founded in 1991 by aides to former Sen. Vincent Fumo with the mission of revitalizing Philadelphia communities. But investigators say it has become a favor bank for political insiders.

The group's spending "raises red flags all over the place," and it has spent thousands of dollars in ways "that have nothing to do with the operation of a charity," Kevin Harley, a spokesman for Attorney General Tom Corbett, told The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Harley cited the nonprofit's frequent purchasing of tools and other items for Fumo, its luxury cars, and its secret funding of a lawsuit against a Fumo political enemy.

Corbett's office could ask a judge to strip the charity of its nonprofit status.

Fumo, a Democrat who represented the city for 30 years, is on trial in federal court for allegedly misusing more than $3.5 million from the charity, the state Senate and a museum. His co-defendant, Ruth Arnao, is a former Senate aide who ran Citizens' Alliance. Both have pleaded not guilty.

The South Philadelphia nonprofit is still operating and has about $18 million in assets; it has spent about $2 million in legal fees connected to the federal probe.

Executive director Christian DiCicco, a former Fumo aide and son of a city councilman, said the group is cooperating with the state's civil inquiry.

Fumo and Arnao illegally used the group to pay for political polling, shopping sprees and other things, according to federal prosecutors.

But attorneys for Fumo argue he was entitled to those things because he was the charity's benefactor.

At the trial this month, former Citizens' Alliance laborers testified that they did personal work for DiCicco on the charity's time, including laying hardwood floors, doing wiring and hanging drywall.

DiCicco denied that laborers worked for free at his property. He said they were friends who worked during off hours and used vacation time.