IS Timothy O'Brien of the New York Times an aggressive reporter -- or simply aggressive?

          O'Brien broke the massive Bank of New York and Russian money-laundering scandal story. But 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.

          "I gave him the story, and at some point when he felt it wasn't exclusive, he got upset and started harassing everybody," Zeltser said, adding that at one point, O'Brien threatened to run "a bad piece" on him in retaliation.

In response, Zeltser collected documents from several players involved in the scandal and recently posted them on the law institute's Web site, www.russianlaw.org. The documents portray O'Brien as a harasser and a patsy for the Russian mafia.

The documents charge O'Brien with badgering sources, including a young lawyer from the World Bank, Oxana Berkounova, who is a witness in federal proceedings involving the defunct Russian Inkombank and the Bank of New York.

The Web site posted a memo that Berkounova sent O'Brien on Dec. 2, 1999, which opens: "Tim, at this point I must demand that you stop harassing me."

The memo goes on to say that O'Brien called her repeatedly, demanded interviews, disrupted her work and attempted to intimidate her by threatening, "Do I have to go to your senior management?"

Berkounova also says that O'Brien "under the color of 'reporting'" was trying to punish her for rejecting his advances on Oct. 29 when they had dinner with two others. After dinner, Berkounova's memo claims, O'Brien persistently demanded information about her hotel room.

Her memo also states: "Although I sympathize with your anguish over your marital problems, I owe you neither social companionship nor personal or professional information."

A spokeswoman for the Times said the paper was aware of the Web site and the memo, and confirmed that the paper was working on a story that would contradict the charges.

"It is totally ridiculous as you will see when the story unfolds over the next few days," said the spokeswoman. "These are obviously false allegations."

Neither Berkounova nor O'Brien returned our calls.