The trustee overseeing bankrupt Tricolor Holdings is investigating possible wrongdoing by the subprime auto lender before its collapse in order to raise money to pay creditors, a lawyer said in court Friday.

The company’s business “appears to be a pervasive fraud of rather extraordinary proportion,” Charles R. Gibbs, who is representing the trustee, told the judge overseeing the company’s liquidation. “Initial reports from these reviews indicate potentially systemic levels of fraud.”