Former leaders of Dewey & LeBoeuf, arguing to dismiss the criminal charges against them, said the firm collapsed partly because of “the voracious greed of some of the firm’s partners” and pointed to the firm’s executive committee for authorizing a deal that’s at the heart of the Manhattan District Attorney’s indictment.

“This is a scapegoat prosecution,” Stephen DiCarmine, Dewey’s former executive director, said in court papers filed Friday with Supreme Court Justice Robert Stolz.