US Prosecutors Charge Oxygen Forensics Executives Over Hidden Russian Ties

US federal prosecutors have charged two executives of Oxygen Forensics, a digital forensics company whose software has been used by American law enforcement agencies and Slovakia's Interior Ministry, with concealing Russian ownership and development of the product. The Justice Department announced the charges against chief executive Lee Reiber and co-founder Oleg Davydov on September 23, 2026, following an investigation opened in October 2025.¹⁴

Charges in the United States

US prosecutors allege that Oxygen Forensics, incorporated in Virginia in 2013, presented itself as an American company while being controlled by five Russian nationals, including Davydov, through a shell company based in Cyprus. A special agent's affidavit asserts that the firm is controlled by five Russian nationals, among them Mr. Davydov, via a shell company in Cyprus." If convicted, Reiber and Davydov could face a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.²

Davydov, a Russian citizen and the company's chief technology officer, was detained while in transit to Istanbul; according to one account he was stopped at Heathrow Airport on September 20, while another report dates the arrest to around October 2. Reiber, a US citizen, was arrested in Idaho. Prosecutors assert that in both 2022 and 2023, Reiber formally told the US government Oxygen had no additional owners.¹²

Prosecutors have made no claim that the program held harmful code or enabled unapproved entry into clients' networks. Officials note the software ran exclusively on offline, isolated networks, and the Secret Service reported finding no indication that confidential data had been exposed.²⁵

Use in Slovakia and Europe

According to Denník N, Slovakia's Interior Ministry purchased the software in 2018. US prosecutors are quoted as saying the American firm behind the tool "zatajovala svojich ruských vlastníkov aj vývoj softvéru v Rusku" (concealed its Russian owners and the software's development in Russia). The outlet reports that the tool helps investigators worldwide extract and examine data from phones and computers, and that many European security services use it.⁴

Denník N also reports that some European security services stopped using the software after receiving information from the United States. In a separate development reported around October 2, several European police forces, among them London's Metropolitan Police, halted their use of the Oxygen Forensics program.⁴²

Company history

Davydov and Oleg Fyodorov set up Oxygen Software in Russia in 2002, with the Moscow Research Institute joining as co-founder; the business stayed at the institute's site until 2015, when it was renamed MKO-Systems and relocated. The US-based Oxygen Forensics was established in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2013. Reports say the American and Russian versions of the software were effectively the same product.¹⁵

In the summer of 2022, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Moscow-based individuals were removed from Oxygen Forensics' corporate filings and Reiber was appointed CEO. A US affidavit indicates the same shareholders hold ownership in a separate Russian firm that served clients including Russia's Federal Security Service, and that a Russia-based team wrote, reviewed and oversaw the software's code. The affidavit says the shareholders drafted an internal document discussing scenarios for Russian government ownership and closer ties with state security services, though prosecutors have not alleged the shareholders acted on those discussions.²

Use by US agencies

The software has been used by the FBI, the Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense. Oxygen Forensics secured roughly $2 million in US government contracts since 2022. The Secret Service canceled its five-year contract in February 2026 after identifying security risks, but the State Department signed a new contract with the company in August 2026.¹⁵

A former Secret Service agent, Konstantinos Dimitrelos, has described the software as central to his investigative work, including extracting tens of thousands of files from Hunter Biden's laptop. "Oxygen is my number one tool. according to him, it is the single tool he relies on and the single tool he instructs others to use I love it," he said. The software was also reportedly used on devices belonging to journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who was arrested in Russia in 2023 and later released.¹

Canadian contracts

Having entered a $65,000 agreement in 2024, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police went on to pay Oxygen Forensics nearly $34,000 in licensing costs under a deal lasting through the end of 2026. Police relied on the program during a homicide inquiry in New Brunswick to confirm information taken from a suspect's mobile device. Canada's Department of Defence had previously paid $20,000 for the software back in 2015, while the Vancouver Police Department allowed its sole licence to lapse in March 2021 without renewal. A VPD spokesperson, Constable Darren Wong, said: "Because the VPD no longer uses this product, the department has no knowledge of any alleged ties between the software and the Russian state."²

Reactions

Digital security expert Runa Sandvik remarked that Russian ownership alone does not mean a software firm is engaged in anything questionable. She added, however, that genuine companies have not traditionally been organized in this fashion. Marianne Meagher, a former Oxygen employee who handled sales to federal agencies, questioned whether the Russians who owned and coded the product would really refrain from inserting backdoors. Bullshit. Max Weissberg, a marketing employee who was fired and subsequently lodged a whistle-blower complaint with the State Department in October 2025, said of one executive that while he likely wasn't FSB himself, his connections made him effectively untouchable. Tons of swagger."¹