Topeka ? David Wittig and another former Westar Energy Inc. executive will go to trial for a third time on criminal charges alleging that they tried to loot the Topeka-based utility.

Wittig, of Topeka, the utility’s former chief executive, will face one count of conspiracy and 14 counts of circumventing internal financial controls. Douglas Lake, of New Canaan, Conn., the former chief strategy officer, will face the conspiracy charge and 13 circumventing counts identical to Wittig’s.

“The United States of America is ready to proceed to trial,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Hathaway told U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson in court Monday.

Prosecutors had not announced their plans since a federal appeals court on Jan. 5 dismissed dozens of convictions against Wittig and Lake.

A three-judge appeals panel ruled the government couldn’t pursue the most serious charges of wire fraud and money laundering a third time against the two men, who left Westar near the end of 2002.

The executives’ first trial in 2004 ended in a hung jury and their second trial resulted in their convictions in September 2005.

Robinson set another court hearing for Monday to discuss scheduling and other matters related to the case. Wittig was present for Hathaway’s announcement, but Lake waived his right to appear.

Afterward, Wittig referred questions to his attorney, who declined to make a statement. Lake’s attorney also declined comment. And Jim Cross, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, said it had nothing to add to what Hathaway said in court.

Both men remain free because of the appeals court’s decision. Wittig spent nearly 13 months in prison in an unrelated bank fraud case, but the appeals court overturned his sentence and he’s appealing the new one imposed by Robinson.

Wittig originally faced 39 charges, and Lake faced 30. Prosecutors alleged that Wittig and Lake engineered schemes to pull additional compensation and benefits out of Westar and hide them from company and federal officials, even as the utility’s financial condition faltered.

Those schemes, prosecutors said, included a plan to spin off Westar’s unregulated businesses, leaving the majority of Westar’s corporate debt with what was left, which would then merge with a New Mexico utility. Wittig and Lake would have controlled the new company and received millions of dollars in payments.

Westar pursued the plan, but state regulators blocked it in November 2002, just two weeks before Wittig announced his resignation. The regulators also ordered Westar to reorganize and reduce its debt.

Prosecutors also claimed Wittig and Lake arranged to get extra payments for moving to Topeka and persuaded Westar to invest in companies in which they or their families had interests.

The appeals court said the government’s case “hung by a thin legal thread.” It overturned the 2005 convictions of Wittig and Lake and said the government couldn’t pursue all of the charges against Wittig and Lake.