The chief executive of an Alexandria, Virginia digital forensics company has been arrested and charged with concealing that the firm was owned and controlled by Russian nationals, and that its software was actually developed in Russia, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
Oxygen Forensics develops software used to extract and analyze data from mobile devices, computers, cloud services and drones, marketing itself to law enforcement, government agencies and businesses.
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 released on bond. He is expected to be arraigned in federal court in Los Angeles in the coming weeks.
A second defendant, Oleg Sergeyevich Davydov, 52, of Moscow, was arrested Sunday at London Heathrow Airport before he could board a flight to Istanbul. The United States intends to seek his extradition.
Both men are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
According to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint, Reiber, Davydov and others conspired from March 2022 to the present to secure contracts from federal agencies through Oxygen Forensics Inc. Prosecutors allege Reiber told the government the company had no foreign ownership or control and that its software was built in the United States, when in fact five Russian nationals, including Davydov, owned and controlled the company, and its software was developed in Russia.
The complaint does not allege the software contained malicious code or that it was used to gain unauthorized access to any customer’s systems or data.
In a related action, a federal magistrate judge in the Central District of California issued a warrant on September 19 authorizing seizure of the company’s corporate bank accounts, roughly 57 domains, and other cyberinfrastructure tied to the alleged scheme. That infrastructure was seized September 20.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security is investigating the case with help from the Department of War’s Office of Inspector General Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Cyber Field Office. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs is assisting with Davydov’s arrest and anticipated extradition.
The involvement of the Department of War’s inspector general suggests Oxygen Forensics software may have been used somewhere within the Pentagon’s orbit, though the government has not detailed which agencies used the product or for what purpose.
Prosecutors have not alleged that the Russian government directed or was involved in the company’s operations. The case comes at a moment of heightened American scrutiny of Russian ties to U.S. contractors, given Washington’s continued support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
