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ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Anheuser-Busch claims that Belgian brewer InBev's unsolicited takeover bid isn't just bad for the bottom line, but is an "illegal scheme" that threatens to defraud Anheuser-Busch shareholders if a federal judge doesn't step in.

Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. made the claim in a lawsuit filed late Monday, just hours after InBev SA filed its own motion seeking to oust Anheuser-Busch's board of directors. The lawsuit, filed in St. Louis federal court, claims that InBev is deceiving Anheuser-Busch shareholders about the company's $46 billion takeover bid by concealing a number of facts.

The suit says InBev doesn't have the solid financing to underwrite the deal, as the company claims, and that it has not disclosed that it operates a brewery in Cuba, which could complicate its efforts to operate in the United States.

"Anheuser-Busch is asking the court to prevent InBev from taking any further steps to solicit Anheuser-Busch's shareholders until it provides full and accurate information concerning its proposal," Gary Rutledge, Anheuser-Busch's vice president of legal and government affairs said in a statement Tuesday.

InBev did not return a message seeking comment Tuesday. But the company did make a public appeal for support of its bid in Anheuser-Busch's home town.

InBev took out a full-page ad in Tuesday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch, saying the takeover would make for a stronger, more competitive global company. It says Budweiser would be expanded globally, and St. Louis