Motorola Inc. (MOT) alleged in a court filing Wednesday that former Chief Financial Officer Paul Liska wiped his laptop and potentially destroyed evidence related to the pending wrongful termination lawsuit.

It's the latest shot in an increasingly ugly legal battle between the embattled cellphone maker and its former financial chief at a time when the company is trying to resurrect itself.

Motorola claims Liska has yet to provide an accounting of the documents he took, and requested the Circuit Court of Cook County, Ill., delay the discovery process until the court settles the issue.

Liska's attorney declined to comment but said Liska denied the allegations.

Motorola declined to offer further comment.

Liska questioned the rapidly changing financial forecasts for Motorola's troubled mobile devices business, which sank from a top-tier player to an also-ran over the last few years.

Motorola claims Liska was fired because he was "erratic, unprepared, abrasive, divisive - and often simply absent and 'unavailable.'" Back in February, the company said it replaced Liska because it had postponed the spinoff.

The Schaumburg, Ill., company is dealing with this drama even as co-Chief Executive Sanjay Jha attempts to orchestrate a comeback on the back of Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android mobile platform. Jha is attempting to turn around years of little innovation which turned its once flagship Razr phone into a bargain bin device.

With the recession and growth slowing in the cellphone business, Motorola is getting squeezed. In the fourth quarter, its cellphone sales fell by half and it posted an operating loss of $595 million.

Motorola shares ended Wednesday $4.87, up 19 cents, or 4.1%.

-By Roger Cheng, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2020; roger.cheng@dowjones.com