The chief executive of a US digital forensics company has been charged with allegedly helping Russian nationals conceal their involvement as they sought access to the Secret Service, the Department of War and other sensitive federal agencies.
Lee Reiber, 55, who leads Alexandria, Virginia-based Oxygen Forensics Inc., was arrested in Idaho on Sunday. The Department of Justice charged him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Oleg Davydov, a 52-year-old Russian national, was arrested the same day at London’s Heathrow Airport. US authorities are seeking his extradition.
Prosecutors accuse the pair of hiding the fact that Oxygen Forensics was owned by Russian nationals and that its software, used by the US Secret Service, was developed in Russia.
If convicted, both men could face up to 20 years in federal prison.
The company entered into a five-year agreement with the United States Secret Service and its National Computer Forensics Institute in September 2024. As part of the contract, Reiber certified that the business had no immediate or ultimate owner whose identity would trigger security concerns, including a group of Russian nationals.
Oxygen’s software is designed to recover, preserve and examine electronic evidence from digital devices. Its use at the NCFI, which trains law enforcement officers and judicial officials to fight cybercrime, made the company’s alleged Russian connections a major concern for federal authorities.
The Justice Department arrested an American CEO accused of concealing his company’s Russian ownership after the firm secured a five-year contract with the US Secret Service.
The company was owned by five Russian nationals, while its software was developed and managed in Russia. Prosecutors say its American CEO presented it to federal officials as a US-based business.
Oxygen Forensics signed a five-year agreement with the Secret Service and its National Computer Forensics Institute in September 2024. Reiber was required to certify that the company had no ownership structure that would raise security concerns, including control by Russian nationals.
The affidavit names several US agencies allegedly affected by the Russian-linked company, including the Department of War, the Department of Homeland Security and the DHS inspector general’s office.
Federal prosecutors further allege that the Russian owners’ names were removed from company records in recent years, around the time Reiber became chief executive.
“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,” court documents state.
Prosecutors also claim that Russian government security agencies had used the software extensively.
Davydov developed the program in Russia in 2000. It was previously sold to Russia’s Federal Security Service, Investigative Committee and Ministry of Internal Affairs, according to the allegations.
“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,” the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said.
Reiber allegedly warned Davydov, whom prosecutors described as his Russian boss, in an email that the company’s ties to Russia could not be exposed because doing so might “destroy this entire opportunity”—a reference to the proposed federal contract.
The company, he allegedly wrote, “hangs in the balance.”
In March 2026, prosecutors allege, Reiber told government officials that no Russians had helped build the software and that nobody in Russia had access to it.
Federal prosecutors contend that statement was untrue, alleging instead that the software was managed by a team based in Russia.
The White House referred Our News Outlet’s request for comment to the USSS. The USS did not immediately respond.
