NEW YORK — Sean "Puffy" Combs' lawyer blasted the rap mogul's chief accusers in an angry closing argument Monday, calling them frauds who lied on the stand to advance their multimillion-dollar civil suits.

"It's like Who Wants to Be a Billionaire," defense attorney Benjamin Brafman told jurors in the weapons possession and bribery trial. "What happened is bad people came into this courtroom and made accusations against Sean Combs to get rich."

The prosecutor, seeking convictions that could send Combs to jail for 15 years, is scheduled to deliver his summation Tuesday morning. The panel of seven men and five women will begin deliberating in the afternoon.

Combs is accused of firing a gun during an argument at a Manhattan nightclub where he was partying with then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez and his co-defendants, bodyguard Anthony "Wolf" Jones and rapper Jamal "Shyne" Barrow. Three bystanders were wounded, allegedly by Barrow. Combs is also charged with bribing his chauffeur to take the rap for a gun recovered in his SUV.

The 31-year-old Bad Boy Entertainment honcho had his ever-present Bible open on the defense table before him, but he kept his eyes glued on the jury during his lawyer's three-hour summation. He wore a billowy, off-white suit that set him apart from the crowd of dark-suited lawyers and co-defendants in the well of the court.

His supporters, including his mother Janice and Def Jam Records founder Russell Simmons, packed into a few rows of reserved seats in the rear of the courtroom. The line for about 30 unreserved seats in the gallery began forming nearly three hours before summations began and grew to include several hundred people.

Those who did get in saw the defense on the offense. Barrow's lawyer, who delivered the first summation, admitted his client fired a gun at the ceiling during a Dec. 27, 1999, argument at Club New York, a Times Square disco popular with the recording industry. However, lawyer Ian Niles said a Brooklyn felon named Matthew "Scar" Allen instigated the fight and members of his gang shot first. He noted that there was no ballistic evidence linking the bullets that struck the victims to his client's gun, and said Barrow acted in self-defense.

"His intent was to save his life," Niles told jurors.

Jones' lawyer followed Niles and pointed the finger at Combs' chauffeur, Wardel Fenderson. The driver was originally charged with gun possession alongside Jones and Combs but later cut a deal with the prosecution and became the prosecution's star witness. Fenderson said that soon after he was arrested, his boss and his bodyguard began pressuring him to "take the gun." In two days on the stand, Fenderson testified that Jones and Combs offered him $50,000 and a diamond pinkie ring — a gift from Lopez — to tell police the weapon was his.

Defense lawyer Michael Bachner argued that the gun found in the SUV belonged to Fenderson, and the bribery allegations were a cover for his own guilt. He noted that not one witness testified that Jones had a gun in the nightclub and, perhaps taking a page from fellow defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran, rhymed, "No gun at the bar, no gun in the car."

Brafman, who promised jurors the first day of the trial that they would "feel good" about acquitting Combs, ripped into the characters of Fenderson and two gunshot victims, the trio who testified Combs brandished a gun on the night of the shooting.

Fenderson testified that Combs tucked a gun in his waistband before entering the club, and two gunshot victims, Natania Reuben and Julius Jones, claimed they saw Combs aiming a gun before they were hit. All three filed suits against Combs: Fenderson for $3 million, Reuben for $150 million, and Jones for $700 million.

Brafman made surprisingly personal attacks on all three. Jones, he said, had only held one legitimate job in his 28 years, and that was a three-month part-time stint in a city park. He hinted that the Brooklyn man, who was struck in the shoulder, had some illegal source of income, noting that he had enough money to go club-hopping and buy the leather suit he wore to the disco. He reminded jurors that Jones testified that he didn't know or want to know the occupation of his best friend of 25 years and also claimed not to know the last name of another club patron, "homegirl" Chutney, an acquaintance of a dozen years who lived in his building.

"Are we stupid? How could you not know your girlfriend's name?" Brafman bellowed at the jury. Jones, he said, wasn't someone who could be counted on to water house plants let alone offer testimony at a trial.

The lawyer said Reuben, struck in the face, was so untrustworthy that her own best friend, defense witness Patricia Richardson, had called her a liar. He reminded jurors that Richardson testified that Reuben admitted she had never seen a gun during the shooting.

"From the moment she gets hit, her eye is on the prize: Puffy, Puffy, Puffy, Puffy," Brafman said.

He also assailed Fenderson as "despicable" for falling behind $70,000 in his child support payments.

Brafman told jurors his failure to pay child support shows "he does not respect the rules we are supposed to live by."

The defense lawyer also lit into the credibility of two witnesses — an escort agency boss and his driver — who suggested Combs had tossed a weapon from his SUV as it sped from the scene of the shooting. He called them "bums" and scoffed at their testimony that their agency was not a front for prostitution.

Brafman asked jurors to contrast his client — "maybe one of the most successful young African Americans in the history of America" — with his accusers — "two pimps on the street, a dead beat dad and two people in a club" with lawsuits and conflicting stories.

"If ever there was a case where the reasonable doubt jumps off the page at you ... this is the case," Brafman told the jury.

Prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos barely spoke in court Monday but took pages of notes on his opponents closing for what will surely be his own lengthy summation.