(Bloomberg) -- A top American executive at Russian gas producer Novatek PJSC has asked a U.S. judge to dismiss a tax-fraud indictment against him, claiming the charges weren’t filed within the required time limit.

Mark Gyetvay, Novatek’s deputy chief executive officer, was accused in a Sept. 22 indictment of failing to pay taxes on $40 million in income and hiding $93 million in Swiss bank accounts from the Internal Revenue Service.  

“All of the charges filed by the government in this case are untimely on the face of the indictment and should therefore be dismissed,” Gyetvay attorney Matthew Mueller said Thursday in a filing in federal court in Fort Myers, Florida. 

Gyetvay is charged, for instance, with filing false income tax returns for 2006, 2007, and 2008. He filed the first two in 2011, and the third in 2013, Mueller said. The statute of limitations on those counts “all expired well prior to the filing of the indictment,” Mueller said.

The defense attorney argued that prosecutors missed deadlines in the indictment also charging Gyetvay with one count of tax evasion, five counts of failure to file returns, one false statements count, three counts of wire fraud, and two counts of failing to file financial reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, or FBARs.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. 

Last week, prosecutors asked the judge to delay the Nov. 1 trial date by at least six months while they gather more evidence from overseas. 

Gyetvay is free on an $80 million bond but under house arrest with GPS monitoring. He surrendered three passports and must adhere to a curfew at night. 

Gyetvay had $93 million in “secret Swiss bank accounts that he had maintained by a group of Swiss wealth advisors who helped him transfer money in and out of those accounts,” tax prosecutor Stanley Okula said at a Sept. 23 bail hearing. 

Gyetvay used the money to buy homes in Italy and Colorado and to renovate his home in Naples, Florida. He also bought Bentley automobiles and “high-end art,” Okula said. 

The case is U.S. v. Gyetvay, 21-cr-83, Middle District of Florida (Fort Myers).

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.