Bank of New York Mellon Corp. asked a U.S. judge for guidance on how it should handle $539 million in Argentine bank accounts earmarked for payment of restructured sovereign debt after the court said such a payment would be illegal.

Bank of New York is seeking to retain the money in the accounts, saying sending it back to Argentina would open the bank up to lawsuits. Argentina has been told by the court that it must pay holders of its defaulted debt at the same time it pays the restructured bonds. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to reverse that order.