The judge in the billion dollar tax shelter case involving 16 former partners at KPMG will on Monday hear claims from a lawyer representing the firm’s former deputy chairman Jeffrey Stein that he make public certain documents relating to the case.

David Spears, a lawyer for Stein, has asked the federal judge to make public documents related to the KPMG’s decision not to pay legal fees to its former partners facing criminal charges over its tax shelter scheme.

Spears claimed the documents are key to the issue of whether prosecutors put undue pressure on KPMG to not advance attorneys’ fees to avoid violating a non-prosecution agreement.

Last August, KPMG agreed to pay $456m (£246m) to the government to defer prosecution over the design and marketing of certain tax shelter schemes.

Prosecutors claim the scheme allowed wealthy people to avoid paying $2.5bn (£1.35bn) in taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.

The case is expected to go to trial in September.