Lawyers for the American Medical Center on Thursday accused their newly opened competitors, U.S. Global Health-Moscow, of violating a court order that forbids U.S. Global Health from soliciting some of AMC's clients.


"They are arrogant. That's what it boils down to," said Allen Foster, a Washington attorney representing AMC. "Instead of doing business fairly, they want to do it the easy way, which is to steal our customers."


Foster said in a telephone interview that AMC plans to submit affidavits next Monday showing that some of those present at a Wednesday night cocktail party hosted by U.S. Global Health at the Radisson-Slavjanskaya Hotel were clients of AMC.


The purpose of the invitation cocktail party was to celebrate the grand opening of U.S. Global Health's facility and meet potential clients, a U.S. Global Health spokeswoman said Wednesday.


People attending the cocktail party on behalf of AMC observed three of the AMC's top clients there in violation of the court order, Foster said.


"What happened here was not a mistake," he added.


Under a July preliminary injunction issued by a North Carolina judge, U.S. Global Health is forbidden from soliciting those AMC clients who appear on a list that the judge found there was evidence U.S. Global Health obtained under false pretenses.


A U.S. Global Health executive scoffed Thursday at the validity of both the suit and the latest allegations.


"To the best of my knowledge, no firms that were on the list of 177 that they claim were their contractual clients received invitations to come to our cocktail party," said Dr. Bruce Barron, president of Columbia-Presbyterian Health Services Inc., which owns U.S. Global Health in partnership with PepsiCo World Trading, Inc., a division of the soft-drink giant. "I believe we can certainly document who was on our list."


After the cocktail party affidavits are filed in Superior Court in Craven County, North Carolina -- where PepsiCo is incorporated -- AMC attorney Garret Rasmussen said he expects the judge in the case, James Strickland, to rule later in the week. AMC wants the court to impose financial penalties on U.S. Global Health for what it claims are the initial theft of trade secrets and subsequent violations of the injunction, Rasmussen said.


For his part, Dr. Barron said the legal wrangling has distracted attention from the good being done at the new medical center, which brings to four the number of western-standard facilities in Moscow.


"I am absolutely stymied as to why this project with the credentials of our doctors would have been so ignored by the press and the attention instead focused on a suit which I believe has no merit," said Dr. Barron.