Topeka ? A former Westar Energy Inc. executive wants to delay the start of his retrial on charges he and another former top executive looted the company.

Douglas Lake filed a motion Thursday in U.S. District Court asking Judge Julie Robinson to postpone the start of the June 14 trial in Kansas City, Kan., while he appeals a ruling that denied him and David Wittig access to legal fees from Westar.

Wittig, 49, and Lake, 50, both are facing 40 counts – including wire fraud and money laundering – alleging they raided millions of dollars from the state’s largest electric utility. They have pleaded innocent and say the actions for which they are being prosecuted were approved by the company’s directors.

Their first trial on the charges, which lasted from Oct. 12 to Dec. 20, ended in a mistrial when jurors couldn’t reach a verdict on all counts.

Wittig, of Topeka, is former chief executive officer, president and chairman of the board of Westar. Lake, of New Canaan, Conn., is former executive vice president of corporate strategy.

Robinson ruled in May that evidence at the first trial supported prosecutors’ claims that Wittig and Lake intended to loot the Topeka-based company when they joined it. Robinson ruled that any legal payments made by Westar to the two men should be put in an escrow account, and she blocked transfer of the funds.

As part of a forfeiture count against the men, prosecutors want to seize the legal fees, which were required by the company’s articles of incorporation. Federal officials are seeking forfeiture on the theory that the fees are involved in or derived from a scheme to commit money laundering and wire fraud.

Wittig and Lake billed Westar for $7.9 million to pay legal costs after the first trial, an amount the U.S. attorney’s office said exceeded the budget for the federal prosecutors’ office in Kansas for a year.