Lee Reiber, the American CEO of a digital forensics firm, has been arrested for allegedly helping Russian nationals conceal their ownership of his company to secure U.S. Government contracts, including a deal with the Secret Service.
Reiber, 52, was taken into custody in Idaho and made an initial court appearance there this week. Federal prosecutors announced Wednesday that he and Moscow-based Russian national Oleg Sergeyevich Davydov, 52, are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The case will move to Los Angeles federal court, where Reiber is expected to be arraigned in the coming weeks.
The alleged scheme centered on Oxygen Forensics, an Alexandria, Virginia-based company whose software is used to recover, preserve and analyze electronic data from digital devices. Davydov developed the software and founded the Virginia company in 2013. Reiber joined two years later and was installed as CEO after U.S. Sanctions hit Russia in 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine.
Prosecutors say the Russians used Reiber as the American face of the company while keeping their ownership hidden from public corporate filings. Davydov and four other Russian nationals allegedly controlled Oxygen Forensics through a holding company in Cyprus. The Russian-developed software had previously been sold to the Russian Federal Security Service, the Russian Investigative Committee and the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
But Reiber’s role as CEO was allegedly limited. 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,” according to the complaint.
Reiber allegedly told the U.S. Government in December 2022 and again in October 2023 that the company had no “immediate or highest-level owner.” He 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.”
Then came a potentially explosive warning. 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 U.S. 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 NCFI award file included Reiber’s certification that Oxygen did not have an “immediate or highest-level owner.”
In March 2026, Reiber 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.”
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 alleged deception could have given Russian agents a foothold inside a company providing technology to government customers. Federal prosecutors framed the arrangement as a Cold War-style scheme to conceal the company’s Russian ties while pitching its software to U.S. Agencies.
Davydov was arrested Sunday at London’s Heathrow Airport, and U.S. Authorities are seeking his extradition from Britain. Both men face up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted.
Reiber is headed for a Los Angeles federal courtroom for arraignment in the coming weeks.