"Why was O'Brien
permitted to write January
17 story at all?"  

   "I was doing my job,
period, says Times reporter
Timothy O'Brien."

The Bank of New York

Russian Mob Scandal

TIMOTHY L. O'BRIEN
Erstwhile NY Times Reporter

FORMER BONY EXEC HIRES TOP PIs TO TRACK PLAINTIFF LAWYERS/WITNESSES

New York Times reporter, Timothy O'Brien joins campaign against witnesses testifying against Russian mob "banks"

Dec. 16 (MT-WIRE) Shortly after U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan permitted the deposition of former Bank of New York executive, Natasha Gurfinkel-Kagalovsky, she hired an elite PI firm to track lawyers and witnesses in a class action lawsuit against the BoNY.

For the past several weeks, San Francisco's Palladino and Sutherland, the PI firm President Bill Clinton hired to investigate Gennifer Flowers in a highly publicized sex scandal, appeared at the homes of several witnesses who testified in related money-laundering proceedings. The questions were specifically addressed to those who provided evidence in a shareholder lawsuit and criminal investigation against Inkombank, a now-insolvent Russian bank with alleged organized crime ties.

One such witness, Maria Berdnikova, who is also a Russian newscaster, said a women who identified herself as an investigator from the firm stormed her house at around 8 p.m. and demanded through an outside door to know whether she was having an affair with Emanuel Zeltser. Zeltser , a plaintiffs' lawyer in the suit against Bank of New York as well as Inkombank. Berdnikova, annoyed at absurdity of the question, refused to answer.

An hour later, Anna Reid, a lawyer and witness in the Inkombank lawsuit, was also interrogated in true Palladino style about her relationship with Zeltser. For this round of questioning the firm stopped at nothing and sent the head honcho himself, Jack Palladino. Reid, like Berdnikova, declined to answer. But, Palladino persisted -- that is until she threatened to call the police.

After the encounters, both Palladino and Kagalovsky's lawyer, Stanley Arkin, admitted the firm was indeed hired by Kagalovsky "to investigate Zeltser" Arkin has been saying that he already has "a huge dossier" on Zeltser.

Simultaneously with Palladino firm, a New York Times reporter, Tim O’Brien, has been pursuing the same witnesses, demanding answers to questions, identical to those that were asked by Kagalovsky’s PIs. O’Brien recently intimated to a number of people that "his investigators" keep Zeltser and other lawyers and witnesses under surveillance. He also left messages on Zeltser’s voice mail saying that "his people" who apparently spy on Zeltser reported to him that he was in the office. Attorney for the New York Times  denied O’Brien's or the Times involvement with Palladino & Sutherland. Berdnikova however told MT that O'Brien boasted to her about his "affiliation" with the Palladino's firm. "The guy is in the midst of a nasty divorce and is obviously sexually insecure" said Maria, "apparently playing a detective helps him prove his manhood at least to himself."

"None of this shocks me" said Zeltser, who has been the target of a smear campaign by Russian organized crime for the past five years -- ever since he filed a lawsuit against the notorious Inkombank. Zeltser, who is now part of a team of lawyers suing the Bank of New York alleging the U.S. bank helped organized crime bosses loot the Russian bank, said such intimidation tactics are often used by organized crime to prevent witnesses from coming forward. 

O'Brien did not return our phone calls.

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