U.S. prosecutors who said last week they have an “exceedingly strong” tax-fraud case against a top American executive at Russian gas producer Novatek PJSC now want to delay his trial to gather more evidence from overseas.

The request to push back Mark Gyetvay’s Nov. 1 trial date by at least six months was filed Wednesday with a federal judge in Florida. 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.

Under the Speedy Trial Act, U.S. defendants are entitled to a trial within 70 days of their indictment. Judges often are willing to push back trials in complex white-collar cases, if both sides agree. Prosecutors in the Gyetvay case asked for more time even though the gas executive, who pleaded not guilty and denies wrongdoing, opposes the request.

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