Oxygen Forensics CEO Arrested for Allegedly Hiding Russian Ownership
The CEO of American software company Oxygen Forensics, Lee Reiber, was arrested in Boise, Idaho, on Sunday on charges of deceiving the U.S. government about the company's Russian ownership and development origins. Reiber allegedly presented Oxygen Forensics as an independent U.S. firm, claiming its phone analysis software was developed domestically. However, federal prosecutors contend that five Russian nationals, including co-founder Oleg Davidov, secretly controlled the company through a Cypriot holding firm, and that the software's code was written in Russia under Davidov's management.
Davidov, a 52-year-old Russian citizen residing in Moscow, was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport on the same day, and the U.S. is seeking his extradition. According to the complaint filed in Los Angeles, Oxygen Forensics supplied its tools to U.S. government agencies, including the Department of Defense and the Secret Service, as well as the Department of Homeland Security. The company reportedly signed declarations in 2024 and this year stating it had no foreign control or Russian involvement.
Prosecutors allege that following sanctions against Russia in 2022, Davidov's name was removed from company records, and the Russian entity was renamed. To further conceal the origins, the software development process was allegedly routed through U.S. cloud servers, allowing Reiber to claim domestic development while Russian teams continued to write and manage the code. The indictment charges conspiracy to commit fraud, with a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Authorities have seized 57 domain names, computing infrastructure, and bank accounts belonging to the company.
Oxygen Forensics' software extracts data from phones, including messages, photos, and passwords, and is primarily sold to law enforcement and government bodies. The U.S. government's procurement rules are designed to prevent scenarios where a company sells to both Russian intelligence services and American agencies, as is alleged in this case. The article notes that Cellebrite, a leading Israeli company in this market, stopped selling to Russia and Belarus in 2021 and has since pursued U.S. legal incorporation. It remains uncertain if Oxygen Forensics' federal clients will switch to competitors, but continued business seems unlikely while the case is ongoing. This action is part of a broader U.S. government effort to scrutinize suppliers with ties to Russia and China, particularly concerning sensitive information.
