Timothy L. O'Brien - Journalistic Fraud


American Russian Law Institute A not-for-profit tax exempt public policy research and advisory organization

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"It is rarely a good idea in a news story for the subject and the reporter to be the same person." Richard Tofel (The Wall Street Journal)

I note with sorrow that your Tim O'Brien was correct when he boasted that "access to the the Times pages to settle personal scores was a fringe benefit available to NYT reporters." Open letter to the Editors of the New York Times

What started as a scoop for Times reporter Tim O'Brien became an obsession... O'Brien can become emotional in the pursuit of a story and he had clearly become obsessed with Zeltser (New York Magazine)

"The real dirt in the Bank of New York story isn't only its subject - the Russian mafia - but the strive between a reporter and his source." (Brill's Content)

Timothy O'Brien, who opened the "Russiangate" hysteria in August of last year and then "raised doubts" about his source in January of this year, now, more vigorously than anyone else predicts new scandalous revelations. It is as though he is trying to buy forgiveness for his sin." (Moscow News)

"... what you have planned is a terrible idea, it is wrong, unfair, contrary to journalistic ethics and last but not least, will cause grave damage to your reputation as well as that of the Times." (Letter from Victor Smolny, a prominent Russian broadcaster to Tim O'Brien.)

FROM RUSSIAN MONEY LAUNDERING TO RUSSIAN BORSCHT: O'Brien, once Times' business reporter debuts in Restaurant Reviews. Frustrated with the Wall Street Journal's beating him to the breaking Bank of New York-Russian money laundering story, Tim O'Brien strikes back with a "breaking review" on a Russian restaurant. Borscht and Small Talk. NY Times, April 16

"Why was O'Brien permitted
to write January 17 story at all?"
p-brill.jpg (14788 bytes)
"I was doing my job, period, says
Times reporter Timothy O'Brien."

HAS TIM TEAMED UP WITH

KAGALOVSKY's GUMSHOES?

"BAD BET"
by Timothy L. O'Brien

"...a canned history of the various elements of the gambling industry ... For the most part reads like a series of feature articles stapled together". Excerpts From Kirkus Reviews (September 1, 1998)

The New York Times scandal - 2003

TRUE STORY BEHIND O'BRIEN'S STORY

Timothy L. O'Brien, the New York Times reporter who broke the Bank of New York -Russian money laundering story, resigns in disgrace.

Copyright © 2000 MT~Wire

NEW YORK, APRIL 28, 2000 (MT) -- Ever since the publication of O'Brien's infamous article, "Doubts Raised About Source in Bank of New York Inquiry" on January 17, 2000, it was apparent that the Times could no longer afford the once front page business reporter who broke the Bank of New York-Russian money laundering story.

Editors appeared to have attempted a compromise. First O'Brien was put on book review detail. "Capitalism Russian-style" (NY Times, Feb. 6, 2000; by Timothy L. Obrien) A few weeks later O’Brien was further downgraded from Russia-related books to reviewing Russian restaurants -- compelled to write a "breaking story" about chicken Kiev in Manhattan’s Russian Samovar (Borscht and Small Talk; Restaurant Serves as a Russian Island in Manhattan. NY Times, April 16; by Timothy L. O'Brien)

Nothing seemed to have worked however and on April 26, O’Brien’s departure from the Times was the talk of New York’s newsrooms.

In August of last year, Tim O’Brien broke the story about the money laundering investigation at the Bank of New York launching unprecedented media exposure of Russian financial machinations in the US. However on January 17 of this year, O’Brien published an incredible retraction suggesting that the New York Times and other press may have been drawing information from a source which O’Brien claimed is tainted, to wit, Emanuel Zeltser, Director of American Russian Law Institute and one of the attorneys in a class action against BoNY.

Since that article appeared, questions have been raised whether this improbable reporting has been sanctioned from Moscow by those who seek to hush investigations into Russian mob's money laundering through the Bank of New York. "By publishing this article he committed professional suicide", said Maria Berdnikova, prominent Russian- American newscaster.

O'Brien did not return our calls

RELATED STORIES

Source Turns on Times Reporter (New York Post, Jan.17, 2000) Is Timothy O'Brien of the New York Times an aggressive reporter -- or simply aggressive? ... Emanuel Zeltser, a lawyer and board member of the American Russian Law Institute, charges O'Brien went "out of control" last August when he learned Zeltser, one of his best sources, was talking to the Wall Street Journal and other papers.

Russian Nouveau Riche Applaud O'Brien
Tim O’Brien’s article in the New York Times ("Doubts Raised About Source in Bank of New York Inquiry") is receiving rave reviews by Russia’s financial elite. "We’ve always said that Americans fabricated the whole story" proclaimed a commentator of the Most-Media...

Russian Launderers "Spin" Back - The Times Reporter Teams Up with Kagalovsky's Gumshoes
New York Times Reporter, Timothy O'Brien Joins Campaign Against Witnesses Testifying Against Russian Mob-Controlled Banks.

Is Times Reporter Making Fool of Himself?
In his bizarre January 17, 2000 article Timothy L. O'Brien wrote that Emanuel Zeltser, once the Times primary source for the BoNY-Russian laundering stories, discontinued granting interviews to the idiosyncratic reporter...

Times' Reporter Targets Lawyers, Witnesses
Alarming reports from Moscow and New York show that Russian financial racketeers are back to their usual stratagem of thwarting criminal and civil proceedings by halting media exposure of their money laundering activity in Russia the US.

Has the NY Times' Reporter become a Patsy for Russian Mob?
O'Brien went beyond using the Times' pages to "settle the score" with his former front page source. Witnesses, lawyers and even journalists, who exposed Russian mob proliferation into American banking system reported that O'Brien attempted to harass and intimidate all those who took the stance against Russian and American money launderers. At whose behest?

The O'Brien Questionnaire. Is Tim O'Brien of the NY Times conducting a legitimate journalistic inquiry? You'll be the judge.

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