NEW YORK -- The prosecution bore down on ex-WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers in his fraud trial today, trying to depict him as a desperate man who was crushed by personal debts (see Ebbers: Of Motels & Men).

In a cross-examination of Ebbers, who took the witness stand on Monday, Chief Prosecutor David Anders focused on Ebbers’s hundreds of millions of dollars in loans as a potential motive in the company's $11 billion fraud, as banks forced Ebbers to hand over nearly all his WorldCom stock in 2000. (WorldCom eventually filed for bankruptcy and has since emerged as MCI Inc. -- see Is Capellas Right for WorldCom?, MCI Starts a New Chapter, and MCI to Ebbers: Timberrr!.)

Ebbers’s testimony also featured the usual run of WorldCom nuggets -- including sightings of former Smith Barney analyst Jack Grubman, more news from Bernie's yacht, and the resurgence of the ever popular coffee clash.

Poring over a series of financial documents, Anders asked Ebbers many questions about WorldCom’s financial situation. Ebbers suffered repeated memory lapse across many scenarios, answering “I do not recall,” to several questions about finances. But he did say he saw many regular WorldCom financial reports, including monthly reports regarding revenue and growth rates, and was in communication with the company's Investor Relations department about company guidance.

At one point, Anders appeared to score some points as Ebbers said he had added to WorldCom’s public growth-rate forecasts while speaking at a financial conference, although Ebbers brushed off the incident as insignificant.

”You added a half percent,” said Anders, referring to Ebbers’s statement that he had tacked on to the company’s growth numbers.

”Yes,” replied Ebbers. “...it doesn’t matter... what’s important is the range. “”So there was no motive to add a half percent?” asked Anders.”No,” said Ebbers.

In exchanges such as these, Anders showed that Ebbers had quite a sophisticated knowledge of financial goals and Wall Street's close monitoring of WorldCom's forecasts.

Using corporate memos as evidence, Anders also showed that Ebbers had seen and was familiar with preliminary growth rates with respect to analysts’ estimates, monthly revenue and growth figures, and reports on expenses, including line costs. (Line costs were a pivotal item in the $11 billion fraud at the company, as ex-WorldCom CFO Scott Sullivan has testified.)

Ebbers often replied that he “did not recall” many of the details on financial reporting, though he did say he was aware of the company’s growth and profit rates. At one point, Anders asked him if he thought it was important to understand WorldCom’s costs, to which Ebbers replied, “It’s important to make a profit.” Ebbers also said that he “looked at the line costs.”

The cross-examination delved into the deep details of Ebbers's massive personal debt, which later weighed on his and the company’s finances. The prosecution tried to show that Ebbers had been pressured to maintain WorldCom’s stock price in the face of mounting margin calls from banks looking to collect on his debt, which was collateralized by his WorldCom stock.

Here are some of the details:

As many of these details were discussed, Anders asked Ebbers how he felt along the way.

“Did you feel any pressure?” asked Anders.

“A little bit,” said Ebbers.Beyond the intense grilling on Ebbers’s personal debt, the cross-examination visited some other well-worn themes of WorldCom history, including:

Ebbers’s testimony continued this afternoon, and the trial is expected to wrap up this week. Ebbers, if convicted, faces a potential sentence of 85 years on nine counts of fraud.

For more coverage of WorldCom/MCI, see: WorldCom Directors Settle, Sullivan to Testify Against Ebbers, Ebbers Gets Brief Reprieve, and WorldCom's Ebbers Stands Firm.

— R. Scott Raynovich, US Editor, Light Reading