Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette (R) announced criminal charges Tuesday against four former Flint officials as part of an investigation into the citys lead-tainted water scandal. The move brought the total number of people facing charges to 13.

Former Flint emergency managers Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose both face multiple charges, including false pretenses and conspiring to commit false pretenses, felonies that each carry a 20-year sentence.

Schuette also announced charges against former Director of Public Works Howard Croft and Daugherty Johnson, the departments former utilities director.

The state attorney general alleges that, as part of a plan to build a new water pipeline, the four defendants were involved in defrauding the state to borrow millions of dollars. And he accused them of authorizing the switch to Flint River water, despite knowing the treatment plant was not ready for service, sparking the crisis.

The cash-strapped city stopped buying its water from the Detroit system, which draws from Lake Huron, and began using the Flint River in 2014 supposedly to cut costs. Residents began complaining soon after that their tap water was making them sick. Under direction of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, the city had failed to properly treat the water to prevent it from corroding pipes and lead leached into residents drinking water. Exposure to any amount of lead is a serious health risk particularly for young children, whose development it can impede.

Schuette accused Earley and the other defendants of putting financial savings before residents safety.