Oxygen Forensic CEO, Russian National Arrested on Complaint Alleging They Hid Russian Ownership and Development of Software Sold to U.S. Government

LOS ANGELES, The CEO of a Virginia-based digital forensics company and a Russian national have been arrested on a federal complaint charging them with concealing that their company was owned and controlled by Russian nationals and that its software was developed in Russia before being sold to U.S. government agencies, the Justice Department announced.

Lee Reiber, 55, of Boise, Idaho, was arrested in Idaho on Sunday and made his initial appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Idaho, where he was ordered released on bond. He is expected to be arraigned in Los Angeles federal court in the coming weeks.

Oleg Sergeyevich Davydov, 52, of Moscow, was arrested Sunday at London Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom prior to boarding a flight to Istanbul. The United States expects to seek his extradition.

Both men are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

The company and the alleged scheme

According to the complaint, the company at the center of the case is Oxygen Forensics Inc., a digital forensics company based in Alexandria, Virginia. Digital forensic software is used to recover, preserve and analyze electronic data from digital devices while keeping original files unchanged.

Prosecutors allege that from March 2022 to the present, Reiber, Davydov and others conspired to obtain contracts from federal agencies through Oxygen Forensics by misrepresenting its ownership and development.

The affected agencies are identified in the affidavit as the U.S. Department of War and three components of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Secret Service and its National Computer Forensics Institute (NCFI), Homeland Security Investigations, and the DHS Office of Inspector General.

The complaint alleges that Oxygen Forensics held itself out as an independent, U.S.-based company, when in fact Davydov and four other Russian nationals owned and controlled it through a holding company based in Cyprus.

Those same five individuals also owned a Russian company, known until September 2022 as Oxygen Software LLC and now as MKO Systems LLC, which Davydov co-founded in 2000. The developers who wrote the software worked in Russia, and MKO sold the software in Russia under different product names to customers that reportedly included the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the Russian Investigative Committee, and the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Davydov was the Russian company's chief technology officer and was responsible for development of its software. He helped establish Oxygen Forensics in Virginia in 2013. Reiber joined the company in August 2015.

Concealment after sanctions

After the United States imposed expanded sanctions on Russia in early 2022 in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Davydov, Reiber and the Russian co-conspirators allegedly agreed to conceal Oxygen Forensics' true ownership and Russian development, according to the affidavit. Reiber was installed as CEO, president and chairman in March 2022, and the Russian owners were removed from the company's public corporate filings.

Despite the filings, prosecutors allege the Russian owners continued to make significant decisions, set Reiber's compensation, overruled him on payments, and held signatory authority over the company's bank accounts.

False certifications to the government

The government alleges Reiber made multiple false certifications:

In December 2022 and October 2023, Reiber falsely certified to the U.S. government that Oxygen Forensics had no immediate or highest-level owner.

In November 2023, after a reporter asked about the company's ownership and its connection to the Russian company, Reiber wrote to Davydov and two other Russian owners that public reporting on the connection "could destroy this entire opportunity," referring to a pending contract with the NCFI, and that the "current existence of this company hangs in the balance."

In September 2024, the NCFI awarded a five-year contract for the software. The award file included Reiber's October 2023 certification.

In July 2024, at Reiber's direction, Oxygen Forensics certified to the Department of War that no foreign person had the power to control the appointment of directors or direct its activities. As Reiber then knew, the Russian owners were foreign persons who controlled its decisions and one had recently been appointed to its board under a Turkish identity.

In March 2026, Reiber told DHS personnel that no Russian was involved in developing the software and that no one in Russia had access to the build environment.

Days later, he authored a statement published on the company's website declaring the company had no development presence in any restricted jurisdiction. According to the complaint, the software was written and managed by a team in Russia under Davydov's direction, in a cloud environment administered by one of the Russian owners.

Seizures and investigation

The Justice Department said a federal magistrate judge in the Central District of California on September 19 issued a warrant authorizing seizure of corporate bank accounts, approximately 57 domains, and other cyber infrastructure used in furtherance of the alleged acts. The domains and related infrastructure were seized on September 20.

The complaint does not allege that the software contained malicious code or that it was used to gain unauthorized access to any customer's computer systems or data.

The case is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security with assistance from the Department of War Office of Inspector General Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Cyber Field Office. The Justice Department's Office of International Affairs is assisting in the provisional arrest and anticipated extradition of Davydov.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys David C. Lachman of the Major Frauds Section and Joshua O. Mausner of the National Security Division are prosecuting the case.

If convicted, each defendant would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. A criminal complaint contains allegations, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.