New York ? Money, power and pressure combined to form a “perfect storm of corruption” that led Bernard Ebbers to commit an enormous fraud, a federal prosecutor said Wednesday in closing arguments at the former Worldcom chief’s trial.

Ebbers’ testimony that he was unfamiliar with finance and accounting was little more than a deceitful effort to avoid punishment, prosecutor William Johnson told jurors.

“He lied right to your face,” Johnson said. “The aw-shucks defense insults your intelligence. You know better.”

Judge Barbara Jones said the defense would present its closing argument this morning and jurors might begin deliberations in the afternoon.

The prosecutor portrayed Ebbers, 63, on Wednesday as a hard-nosed, temperamental manager who became the commanding general of an “army of fraud” at WorldCom Inc. Five other executives pleaded guilty in the $11 billion accounting scandal at the company now known as MCI Inc.