Oxygen Forensics is a digital forensic company based in Alexandria, Virginia, which puts it very near the people who wield power in our nation's capital. It develops advanced software for extracting, decoding and analyzing data from mobile devices, computers, cloud services, drones and so forth. They cater to law enforcement, government agencies, businesses and so on.
On Wednesday, the United States Department of Justice issued a press release announcing the arrest of the CEO of Oxygen Forensics on charges of concealing that the company was owned and controlled by Russian nationals, and that its software was developed in Russia. That's serious.
The CEO of a Virginia-based software company and a Russian national have been arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging them with concealing from U.S. government agencies that their company was owned and controlled by Russian nationals and that its software was developed in Russia, the Justice Department announced today.
Lee Reiber, 55, of Boise, Idaho, was arrested in Idaho on Sunday, made his initial appearance on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Idaho, and was ordered released on bond. He is expected to be arraigned in Los Angeles federal court in the coming weeks.
Oleg Sergeyevich Davydov, 52, of Moscow, Russia, was arrested on Sunday at London Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom prior to boarding a flight to Istanbul. The United States expects to seek Davydov’s extradition.
The defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Russia, remember, is a nation that's not particularly friendly to the United States, and in the light of the United States' leaning towards the Ukrainian side in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, Russia has even less reason to be forthcoming with the USA.
The CEO of Oxygen Forensics stands accused of lying to the federal government.
Reiber allegedly represented to the government that the company had no foreign ownership or control and that its software was developed 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 that the software contained malicious code or that it was used to gain unauthorized access to any customer’s computer systems or data.
In a separate proceeding, a federal magistrate judge in the Central District of California on September 19 issued a warrant authorizing the seizure of corporate bank accounts, approximately 57 domains, and other cyberinfrastructure used in furtherance of the alleged acts. The domains and related infrastructure were seized on September 20.
According to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint, from March 2022 to the present, Reiber, Davydov, and others conspired to obtain contracts from federal agencies through Oxygen Forensics Inc., a digital forensics company based in Alexandria, Virginia.
Note that language: The complaint does not allege that the software contained malicious code. That doesn't mean there wasn't any. But what we do know, what DOJ has told us in this press release, is bad enough: A supposedly American company, one that develops and sells computer forensics software used by American law enforcement and the American government, was secretly controlled by Russia - and the software was written in Russia.
That's some James Bond-level stuff right there. And, if you read between a few lines, it may be even worse:
The United States Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security is investigating this matter with assistance from the Department of War Office of Inspector General Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Cyber Field Office. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs is assisting in the provisional arrest and anticipated extradition of Davydov.
Yes — the Department of War was involved in the investigation, which carries the strong implication that the Pentagon may have used Oxygen Forensics software. For what, we do not know.
There's no indication that the Russian government was involved in Oxygen Forensics. But, as noted, Russia isn't exactly the friendliest nation to the United States anymore, and hasn't been for some time. Russia is also headed up by Vladimir Putin, an old Soviet-era KGB apparatchik, who understands how this kind of game is played, including those two key words: Plausible deniability.
We'll be watching this case as it proceeds. Stay tuned.
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