Norbourg founder Vincent Lacroix asked a judge Thursday to drop the criminal case against him.

The man who made off with more than $100 million from thousands of investors in Norbourg Asset Management said Thursday the criminal case against him should be dropped.

Vincent Lacroix's lawyer, Marie-Hélène Giroux, said securities violations — for which he was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison — overlap the fraud charges he currently faces. She said trying Lacroix for fraud, after he was convicted of securities violations, would amount to double jeopardy, which is unconstitutional.

“The criminal accusations that are brought against him now reflects the same gestures, the same acts... for which he was already sentenced and punished, so we say that he cannot be punished twice for the same crimes,” Giroux argued before a Quebec Superior Court judge Thursday in Montreal.

Lacroix asked the court to grant him bail on the criminal charges so he can move from prison to a halfway house. Earlier this month, the National Parole Board allowed Lacroix to transfer to a halfway house to serve out his conviction on securities violations, but he's had to stay in prison because of the fraud charges.

The fraud trial is set to take place in the middle of September, unless the judge grants his motion to dismiss the fraud charges against him.

Lacroix was found guilty of 51 securities fraud charges in December 2007 after being accused of siphoning $115 million from Norbourg accounts through 137 transactions.

Some 9,200 Norbourg investors in Quebec were affected by the financial fiasco. Nearly 900 were able to recuperate some of their investments.