KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? Former Westar Energy Inc. chief David Wittig, convicted of bank fraud and money laundering, is seeking a new trial or acquittal, claiming his trial last month was riddled with errors.

Wittig was found guilty July 14 of conspiracy, four counts of making false bank entries and one count of money laundering. The case involved a $1.5 million loan he made to co-defendant Clinton Odell Weidner II, former president and chief executive of Capital City Bank in Topeka. Weidner, who pleaded guilty to two of the false-bank-entry charges on the eve of the trial, was convicted of charges identical to Wittig’s.

The government contended that Wittig and Weidner conspired to conceal the loan to Weidner, which Weid-ner used to invest in a residential real estate development near Phoenix.

In motions filed late Friday with the federal court in Kansas City, Kan., Wittig urged U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson to grant him a new trial or to vacate his conviction.

A spokeswoman for Eric Melgren, the U.S. attorney for the district of Kansas, said prosecutors would not comment on Wittig’s motions.

As part of its case, the government alleged that Wittig made the loan to Weidner in exchange for Weidner’s agreement to help secure up to $20 million in financing for Wittig and other Westar executives. The financing, which Wittig and the executives planned to use to buy stock in a proposed Westar spin-off, never occurred because regulators blocked the spin-off.

In court documents, Wittig argued that he should be granted a new trial for seven reasons:

• There was insufficient evidence to convict him.
• Wittig should not have been convicted of making false bank entries because the false-bank-entry law applies only to bank insiders, not to bank customers such as Wittig.
• Wittig was not allowed to cross-examine Weidner on the sentencing implications of his guilty pleas.
• The court should not have admitted exhibits concerning how much Wittig stood to make had the spin-off taken place.
• The court should not have allowed the prosecutor to argue in his closing statement that Wittig had a burden to produce evidence.
• The court improperly instructed the jury.
• The court should have told the jury that so-called nominee loans are not illegal, as such, and that only their concealment is illegal.

Wittig and Weidner are scheduled to be sentenced in the fall. They face punishment ranging from five years to 30 years in prison on each count.