The founder and the CEO of an Alexandria-based digital forensics software firm have been arrested after allegedly hiding that the company is owned and controlled by Russian nationals with Russian technology, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Oxygen Forensics Inc. founder and co-owner Oleg Sergeyevich Davydov, 52, was arrested Sunday [Sept. 20] at London Heathrow Airport before getting on a flight to Istanbul, and CEO Lee Reiber, 55, was arrested in Idaho the same day. Both were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and the U.S. is trying to extradite Davydov.
Reiber appeared before the U.S. District Court in Idaho and was released on bond. Both men are expected to appear in Los Angeles federal court in the “coming weeks,” according to DOJ.
DOJ said that the software didn’t use malicious code or gain unauthorized access to its customers’ computer systems or data. Instead, the company tried to get U.S. government contracts while hiding its “true corporate ownership” by removing the company’s owners from its public corporate filings, according to court documents.
According to DOJ:
According to the affidavit, Oxygen Forensics held itself out to the U.S. government as being an independent, U.S.-based company. In fact, Davydov and four other Russian nationals owned and controlled the company through a holding company based in Cyprus… 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 agreed to conceal Oxygen Forensics’ true ownership and the development of its software in Russia. Reiber was installed as the company’s CEO, president, and chairman of the board in March 2022. The Russian owners were then removed from the company’s public corporate filings.
The Old Town North-based company was founded in 2000 and had contracts with U.S. agencies, including the Departments of Defense (now Department of War) and Homeland Security, as well as the Secret Service and DHS’s Office of Inspector General, according to the complaint.
The 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 (known as the FSB), the Russian Investigative Committee, and the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
On Sept. 19, a federal magistrate judge in the Central District of California ordered the seizure of the company’s bank accounts, as well as 57 domains and “other cyberinfrastructure used in furtherance of the alleged acts,” according to DOJ.
The company’s website is currently down, but its LinkedIn page describes it as “the leading global digital forensics software provider, giving law enforcement, federal agencies, and enterprises access to critical data and insights faster than ever before.”
In December 2022 and October 2023, Reiber certified to the U.S. government that the company had no immediate or high-level owner, according to court records.
Reiber, promoted as Oxygen Forensics’ CEO in 2022, was a detective and forensic examiner for the Boise Police Department in Idaho from 1995 to 2009. In 2005, he founded his own company, Mobile Forensics, and after leaving the department worked as the director and vice president of mobile forensics for an Idaho-based company. In 2015 he was hired as chief operating officer of Oxygen Forensics. The following year, he earned a bachelor’s degree in mobile/computer forensics and digital investigation from Champlain College, according to his LinkedIn page.
In 2024, Oxygen Forensics was awarded a five-year contract with the National Computer Forensics Institute. Before the contract was awarded, a reporter asked Reiber about the company’s ownership, and Reiber allegedly wrote to Davydov and two other Russian owners that public reporting on the connection “could destroy this entire opportunity” related to the NCFI contract. He also wrote that the “current existence of this company hangs in the balance,” according to court records.
“In September 2024, the NCFI awarded a five-year contract for the software,” DOJ said. “The award file included Reiber’s October 2023 certification that the company had no immediate or highest-level owner.”
Reiber, in 2024, also certified to the Department of Defense that no foreign person was in control of the company. In March 2026, he reportedly told DHS that no Russians were involved with creating the company’s software and that it had no Russian influence.
“Days later, Reiber authored a statement, published on the company’s website, declaring that the company had no development presence in any restricted jurisdiction,” DOJ said. “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.”
Davydov and Reiber both face up to 20 years in prison.
