CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate did not disclose his role in a new corporation that has recently spent around $2 million to open a storage rental business and purchase a strip mall. In an ethics filing last week, Pate affirmed that the only outside business in which he engaged during 2017 was the eastern Iowa asphalt paving company he has long owned.

But business and government records reviewed by The Associated Press show Pate formed a company days before the 2016 presidential election, PRG Group LLC, and it worked throughout 2017 to open a new mini-storage business in Cedar Rapids. In a February filing, Pate called himself its “managing partner.”

An aide said Tuesday that Pate was “preparing a response” to questions about the matter.