Add The California Post on Google An American tech CEO allegedly helped Russian nationals hide their ownership of a digital forensics company so it could land lucrative US government contracts — including a deal with the Secret Service.
Federal prosecutors announced Wednesday that Oxygen Forensics CEO Lee Reiber, 52, allegedly joined forces with Moscow-based Russian national Oleg Sergeyevich Davydov, 52, in a Cold War-style scheme to conceal the company’s Russian ties while pitching its software to US agencies.
And now Reiber is headed for a Los Angeles federal courtroom.
The alleged deception could have given Russian agents a foothold inside a company providing technology used to “recover, preserve, and analyze electronic data from digital devices” belonging to government customers.
Reiber and Davydov have been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Reiber, an American, allegedly told the US government that the Alexandria, Virginia-based company wasn’t owned by Russians and that Russian nationals had no role in developing its software.
Davydov and four other Russian nationals allegedly owned Oxygen Forensics through a holding company in Cyprus. The company’s Russian-developed software had previously been sold to the Russian Federal Security Service, the Russian Investigative Committee and the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Davydov developed the software and founded the Virginia company in 2013. Reiber joined in 2015 and was later installed as CEO after the US slapped sanctions on Russia in 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine.
The complaint alleges the Russians then used Reiber as the American face of the company while concealing its Russian ownership from public corporate filings.
But prosecutors say Reiber wasn’t exactly calling the shots.
The Russians “continued to make significant decisions and set Reiber’s compensation, overruled him on payments, and held signatory authority over the company’s bank accounts.”
Reiber allegedly told the US government in December 2022 and again in October 2023 that the company had no “immediate or highest-level owner.”
A month after his second certification, a reporter questioned Reiber about Oxygen’s Russian connections. In emails uncovered by investigators, Reiber allegedly warned Davydov and two other Russian owners that the resulting reporting “could destroy this entire opportunity” to do business with the US government.
He also said the “current existence of this company hangs in the balance,” as he worried about losing a contract with the government’s National Computer Forensics Institute.
The Secret Service-operated institute ultimately awarded Oxygen a five-year contract for its Russian-developed software in September 2024.
The complaint specifically says it 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.”
But the company’s ownership and development ties were allegedly a very different story.
The NCFI award file included Reiber’s certification that Oxygen did not have an “immediate or highest-level owner.”
Reiber also certified to the Department of War in July 2024 “that no foreign person had the power to control the appointment of the company’s directors or managers or to direct its other decisions or activities.”
And in March 2026, the alleged figurehead CEO made an even broader certification to the Department of Homeland Security — “that no Russian was involved in developing the software and that no one in Russia had access to the environment in which it was built.”
The company website likewise stated that Oxygen had “no development presence in any restricted jurisdiction.”
Now Reiber is facing a federal case that will play out in Los Angeles.
He was arrested in Idaho and appeared in an Idaho court this week. Prosecutors expect him to be arraigned in Los Angeles federal court in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, US authorities are seeking to bring Davydov back from Britain after he was arrested Sunday at London’s Heathrow Airport.
Both men face up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted.
