A flurry of motions filed by 19 indicted tax and estate professionals — most formerly with auditing giant KPMG — accuses the government of stacking the deck against them in the deferred prosecution agreement it made with the company.

Last August, KPMG, an audit, tax and advisory firm, became the latest company to defer a prosecution, a relatively new avenue of avoiding corporate prosecution. The option avoided a likely indictment for crimes such as promoting fraudulent tax shelters.