June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Gucci America Inc., the luxury company that is owned by Paris-based PPR SA, asked a U.S. judge to hold Bank of China Ltd. in contempt for failing to turn over documents and to order it to pay $4 million.

Gucci, along with Chloe SAS and Alfred Dunhill Ltd, a unit of Cie. Financiere Richemont SA, said in court papers filed last night that Bank of China has refused to surrender records of companies against whom they won a $4.3 million judgment in a fashion-counterfeiting case. The judge previously ordered Bank of China, which wasn’t a defendant in the counterfeiting case, to turn over documents.

A Bank of China account was “a central instrument” in the counterfeiting scheme run by companies such as wholesale- replica.com, Gucci and the other plaintiffs said in a filing in federal court in Manhattan. “BOC has failed to comply with the terms” of a prior order requiring the bank’s disclosure of records.

The plaintiffs said in court filings that they’ve won a $4.3 million judgment against the counterfeiters, of which $4 million remains unsatisfied. They are seeking to follow funds that were wired into the counterfeiters’ New York account at the bank and transferred to their account in China.

Gucci and the other plaintiffs want an order holding Bank of China in contempt, imposing daily fines until it complies with the order to turn over documents, and requiring the bank to pay $4 million in damages.

Walter Loughlin, a lawyer for Bank of China, that nation’s third-largest lender by market value, couldn’t be reached after business hours.

The bank’s Beijing-based spokesman Wang Zhaowen said the case was groundless. He didn’t comment further.

The case is Gucci America v. Myreplicahandbag.com, 07-cv- 2438, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).