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U.S. authorities have charged the CEO of a digital forensics company and a Russian national with allegedly concealing the firm's Russian ownership and the origins of software sold to U.S. government agencies, including the Secret Service.
Lee Reiber, 55, CEO of Virginia-based Oxygen Forensics, and Oleg Sergeyevich Davydov, 52, of Moscow, were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, the U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday. Reiber was arrested in Idaho on Sunday and later released on bond. Davydov was detained the same day at London's Heathrow Airport before boarding a flight to Istanbul, and the United States plans to seek his extradition.
Prosecutors allege that Oxygen Forensics portrayed itself to U.S. government customers as an independent American company, while Davydov and four other Russian nationals actually owned and controlled it through a Cyprus-based holding company.
The five Russians also owned Moscow-based Oxygen Software LLC, now called MKO Systems LLC, where Davydov served as chief technology officer and oversaw software development, according to the complaint. Developers who wrote Oxygen's forensic software worked in Russia. The Russian company reportedly sold versions of the software to the Federal Security Service, Russia's Investigative Committee and the Interior Ministry.
After the United States expanded sanctions against Russia following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, prosecutors say Reiber, Davydov and others agreed to conceal the company's Russian ownership and development operations. Russian owners disappeared from public corporate filings but allegedly continued making significant company decisions, controlling payments and maintaining authority over bank accounts.
Reiber allegedly certified to the U.S. government in 2022 and 2023 that Oxygen Forensics had no immediate or highest-level owner. Prosecutors also say he told Department of Homeland Security personnel in March 2026 that no Russians were involved in developing the software and that nobody in Russia had access to its development environment.
The company's government customers included the Secret Service and its National Computer Forensics Institute, Homeland Security Investigations and the DHS Office of Inspector General. In September 2024, the National Computer Forensics Institute awarded Oxygen a five-year software contract.
Authorities also seized corporate bank accounts, approximately 57 internet domains and other cyber infrastructure allegedly used in the scheme.
The Justice Department stressed that the complaint does not allege that Oxygen's software contained malicious code or that it was used to gain unauthorized access to customers' systems or data. A criminal complaint contains allegations, and Reiber and Davydov are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
OCCRP sent requests for comment to Oxygen Forensics, including its sales and support contacts, and to MKO Systems, asking that the request be forwarded to Davydov and his legal representatives. OCCRP also contacted the HM Courts and Tribunals Service press office and U.S. Justice Department spokesperson Ciaran McEvoy seeking contact information for the defendants' lawyers. At the time of publication, no responses had been received.
