TORONTO - The three former Nortel Networks Corp. executives on
trial for fraud knowingly manipulated the now insolvent
company's books to reap nearly $13 million in cash and stock
bonuses, the Crown alleged Wednesday.  Lead prosecutor Robert
Hubbard has said that former Nortel chief executive Frank Dunn,
finance chief Douglas Beatty and controller Michael Gollogly
falsified Nortel's financial statements to show a return to
profitability in 2003, even though the company was still in the
red.  The three men have pleaded not guilty to the charges and
none of the Crown's allegations has been proved in court. The
defence opening arguments begin on Thursday, the fourth day of
what's expected to be a six-month trial.  The crux of the Crown
argument is that under Dunn's direction, Nortel had a culture of
"cookie-jar accounting" in which hundreds of millions of dollars
worth of reserves weren't released when they should have been
and later used fraudulently to shore up quarterly results.
Hubbard said he plans to prov