Prosecutors trying three former Dewey & LeBoeuf executives on fraud charges fought back Tuesday against defense assertions that the firm's ex-finance director, Francis Canellas, a key cooperating witness, never talked with the defendants about making “false” accounting adjustments.

During days of cross examinations, Canellas admitted he never mentioned concerns about the appropriateness of adjustments to Dewey chairman Steven Davis, former executive director Stephen DiCarmine and former chief financial officer Joel Sanders.

But under re-direct questioning Tuesday, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Peirce Moser asked Canellas why he never went to DiCarmine and told him that adjustments he was making were “false.”