Bernard J. Ebbers, former chief executive for WorldCom said he had nothing to do with phony accounting of the company’s top officials and received no monthly revenue reports to cut the fraud out.

On Tuesday, WorldCom’s ex-CEO said he did not know about the company’s business in 2000 and 2001, saying all the reports were either lost or tossed in the trash.

Jurors were surprised when Mr. Ebbers said he paid more attention to the expenses for coffee for the staff than to the costs of long-distance networks.

He also denied he was informed about the accounting fraud in the company by the ex-finance chief Scott Sullivan. Mr. Sullivan said in his testimony Ebbers was well aware about WorldCom’s affairs, sometimes having more information than top financial executives.

Ebbers said he could not recall whether he had spoken to the finance chief tête-à-tête. "Generally, we would talk about financial results with a group of people," he stressed.