“Conspiracy to commit wire fraud” — that’s technically what they’re charged with.

Sort of like how Al Capone went down for tax evasion.

This is a story that includes YET ANOTHER Biden-era screw up that endangered both President Trump and those sworn to protect him, and so many others.

Lee Reiber of Boise, Idaho was arrested this past week for his alleged role in a conspiracy to sneak foreign-designed, foreign-made, and foreign-controlled software beneath the security radar of the United States.

And prosecutors say that Reiber knowingly did so on behalf of his RUSSIAN handlers:

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The story goes like this.

Reiber was the CEO of Oxygen Forensics, but he wasn’t the founder.  (And the Russian national who actually founded the company was captured in a synchronized arrest the very same day!)

He was ‘PLACED’ at the head of the company by the Russians who controlled him as a public figurehead — for the express purpose of eluding detection by the US government with an American CEO at the helm.

And the entire plan was to slip advanced decryption and data extraction software designed and controlled by the Russian government onto some of the most sensitive security devices in the US Government.

That’s according to this report from the New York Post:

Federal prosecutors announced Wednesday that Oxygen Forensics CEO Lee Reiber, 52, allegedly joined forces with Moscow-based Russian national Oleg Sergeyevich Davydov, 52, in a Cold War-style scheme to conceal the company’s Russian ties while pitching its software to US agencies.

The alleged deception could have given Russian agents a foothold inside a company providing technology used to “recover, preserve, and analyze electronic data from digital devices” belonging to government customers.

Reiber, an American, allegedly told the US government that the Alexandria, Virginia-based company wasn’t owned by Russians and that Russian nationals had no role in developing its software.

Prosecutors say that was far from the truth.

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Davydov and four other Russian nationals allegedly owned Oxygen Forensics through a holding company in Cyprus. The company’s Russian-developed software had previously been sold to the Russian Federal Security Service, the Russian Investigative Committee and the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Davydov developed the software and founded the Virginia company in 2013. Reiber joined in 2015 and was later installed as CEO after the US slapped sanctions on Russia in 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine.

The complaint alleges the Russians then used Reiber as the American face of the company while concealing its Russian ownership from public corporate filings.

But prosecutors say Reiber wasn’t exactly calling the shots.

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.” (Emphasis added.)

If you noticed the portions I highlighted in bold in the NYP article I referenced above…

Then you already saw the three RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT ENTITIES that are primary owners of the Oxygen Forensics tech company:

  • Russian Federal Security Service.
  • The Russian Investigative Committee
  • The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs

It takes a lot of guts (FYI: Яички, transliterated as yaíchki in English is the Russian word for “balls”) to tell the US Government that your company has absolutely no Russian ties.

While the truth is, it couldn’t BE more Russian.

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One of the wild things about this story is that it was happening for an extended time, even while multiple people tried to raise the alarm!

For example, one New York legal-tech lawyer just pointed out how two different well-known and well-respected human rights-focused watchdogs, focused on keeping an eye on Russia, have been warning about Oxygen Forensics for years:

Reiber — and Davydov, the Russian simultaneously arrested in the UK — will both face a double-digit prison sentence in the US if they’re found guilty.

And though much of the focus surrounds the use of Oxygen Forensics’ software by the Secret Service…

The reality is that everyone from Homeland Security and the Pentagon have already used the software, according to this coverage by CNBC:

Lee Reiber, 55, chief executive of Oxygen Forensics, was arrested Sunday in Boise, Idaho, where he lives, and released on bond. He is expected to be arraigned in federal court in Los Angeles in the coming weeks.

His co-defendant, Oleg Davydov, 52, of Moscow, was arrested the same day at London’s Heathrow Airport, as he prepared to board a flight to Istanbul. U.S. authorities said they were expected to seek his extradition.

Both men are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, a federal offense that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Oxygen Forensics sells digital forensics software that law enforcement and government agencies use to extract and analyze data from phones and computers. Its customers were reported to include the U.S. Secret Service, Homeland Security Investigations and the Department of War, the Pentagon’s current official name.

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In December 2022 and October 2023, Reiber signed government paperwork falsely stating the company was independent and had no external owner, according to the complaint.

That certification helped Oxygen secure a five-year, $12 million contract with a Secret Service training unit in 2024.

The government’s allegations closely track claims made by Max Weissberg, a former Oxygen employee, in a YouTube video in February, months before the arrests.

Weissberg said the company was “secretly controlled” by a Russian firm with “close ties to the Kremlin”, that “100% of the programmers are in Russia,” and that Reiber was “paid to hide the truth.” Oxygen Forensics denied those claims and sued Weissberg for defamation in August in federal court in Virginia, calling the video part of a retaliatory campaign.

That raises a serious question that I can’t answer.

How many incidents of ‘leaks’ and highly suspicious coincidences can be attributed to this alleged Russian connection?

The YouTube video mentioned in that CNBC story was said to “closely track” with the federal prosecutors in this case.

That might be the understatement of the week!

You can check out that full video here, uploaded by Max Weissberg who purports to be a former employee of the company, nearly 3 months before the arrests:

Here are a few takeaways from Weissberg’s allegations from that video regarding the ‘forensics’ software put out by Oxygen Forensics:

  1. 100% of the programmers are Russian and work from Russia.
  2. Customers include FBI, State Department, ICE, Secret Service, Etc.
  3. 150 different governments use the Russian-made, Russian-controlled software.
  4. The Russian military and FSB (internal security service) use the same software.
  5. The main Russian investor is the former head of the FSB special forces.
  6. His son-in-law is wanted by the FBI with a $100 million reward for cyber crimes.
  7. The true puppet master at Oxygen Forensics has ‘multigenerational’ FSB ties.
  8. Lee Reiber is paid to conceal the true nature of the company, and particularly from discovery by the United States.

If any of those allegations are true, and if the reports I have shared are accurate — in that this software has ALREADY BEEN FIELDED by sensitive US government agencies…

That’s really, really bad.

Susan Crabtree with Real Clear Politics did us a favor at this point in the story.

Check out her wide-angle summary, even connecting the dots back to a specific Russian honeypot situation that Dan Bongino and SS Director Sean Curran TRIED (but were stopped…) from exposing YEARS ago:

Here’s the full text of that post from Crabtree, pointing out how some of these threads go all the way around, full circle:

Another Biden-Era Secret Service Scandal exposed:

Sinister network of Russian agents busted in Cold War-style plot to infiltrate the U.S. Secret Service. h/t @NYPost

It reminds me of the Russian honeypot at the U.S. embassy in Moscow that @dbongino and current Secret Service Director Sean Curran tried to report when they were stationed there together. But, according to Bongino, instead of investigating it, Secret Service headquarters back in Washington told them to can it — keep their mouths shut.

More than 14 years later, U.S. authorities found out the woman was a spy (surprise, surprise) and publicly outed her.

The Secret Service covered it up, according to my sources, allowing a senior Secret Service agent who allegedly failed an inquisition about his months-long sexual relationship with the spy to retire without any serious disciplinary actions or repercussions.

This latest news is another harsh indictment of the Biden-era Secret Service.

An American tech CEO allegedly helped Russian nationals hide their ownership of a digital forensics company so it could land lucrative US government contracts — including a deal with the Secret Service.
The Secret Service-operated institute ultimately awarded Oxygen a five-year contract for its Russian-developed software in September 2024

“The Secret Service-operated institute ultimately awarded Oxygen a five-year contract for its Russian-developed software in September 2024.”

That was two months after the Butler assassination attempt on President Trump when the Secret Service was being run by then-Acting Director Ron Rowe.

Yes, Rowe was the guy who the Chertoff Group hired when he left the agency at the beginning of Trump’s second term.

He’s also the one who got into an angry, vein-bulging shouting match at a hearing with Rep. Pat Fallon over whether he tried to supplant an agent in a 9/11 photo shoot when his wife, another USSS employee, was serving as the staff photographer.

Did you catch the part she pointed out about the timing of the five-year contract that was awarded to Oxygen Forensics?

Two months after the Butler assassination attempt — TWO MONTHS after what may arguably be the worst Secret Service failure in history.

And the Secret Service, under Biden, awarded what prosecutors allege is effectively a PURELY Russian security software company a 5-year contract that would see their software uploaded to computers and devices to be used for highly sensitive US intelligence, military, and security purposes.

That’s absolutely unbelievable.

You can read the full press release from the DOJ in this case here, as it appears on the Justice.gov website:

LOS ANGELES – 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.

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.

Digital forensic software is used to recover, preserve, and analyze electronic data from digital devices while keeping the original files unchanged.

The affidavit identifies the affected agencies as the U.S. Department of War and three components of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). These components include the U.S. Secret Service and its National Computer Forensics Institute (NCFI); Homeland Security Investigations; and the DHS Office of Inspector General.

According to the affidavit, Oxygen Forensics held itself out to the U.S. government as being an independent, U.S.-based company. In fact, Davydov and four other Russian nationals owned and controlled the company through a holding company based in Cyprus.

The same five individuals also owned a Russian company, known until September 2022 as Oxygen Software LLC and now as MKO Systems LLC, which Davydov co-founded in 2000. The developers who wrote the software worked in Russia, and MKO sold the software in Russia under different product names to customers that reportedly included the Russian Federal Security Service (known as the FSB), the Russian Investigative Committee, and the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Davydov was the Russian company’s chief technology officer and was responsible for the development of its software. He helped establish Oxygen Forensics in Virginia in 2013. Reiber joined the company in August 2015.

After the United States imposed expanded sanctions on Russia in early 2022 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. 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.

The company’s Russian owners continued to make significant decisions and set Reiber’s compensation, overruled him on payments, and held signatory authority over the company’s bank accounts.

In December 2022 and October 2023, Reiber falsely certified to the U.S. government that Oxygen Forensics had no immediate or highest-level owner. According to the affidavit, in November 2023, a reporter asked Reiber about Oxygen Forensics’ ownership and its connection to the Russian company. Reiber then wrote to Davydov and two other Russian owners that public reporting on the connection “could destroy this entire opportunity,” referring to a pending contract with the National Computer Forensics Institute, and that the “current existence of this company hangs in the balance.”

In September 2024, the NCFI awarded a five-year contract for the software. The award file included Reiber’s October 2023 certification that the company had no immediate or highest-level owner.

In July 2024, at Reiber’s direction, Oxygen Forensics certified to the Department of War 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. As Reiber then knew, the company’s Russian owners were foreign persons who controlled its decisions and one of them had recently been appointed to its board under a Turkish identity.

Reiber and the Russian owners also concealed that the software was developed in Russia. In March 2026, Reiber told DHS personnel 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. Days later, Reiber authored a statement, published on the company’s website, declaring that the company had no development presence in any restricted jurisdiction. According to the complaint, the software was written and managed by a team in Russia under Davydov’s direction, in a cloud environment administered by one of the Russian owners.

A criminal complaint merely contains allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

If convicted, each defendant would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

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.

Assistant United States Attorneys David C. Lachman of the Major Frauds Section and Joshua O. Mausner of the National Security Division are prosecuting this case. Assistant United States Attorney James E. Dochterman of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section is handling the civil and criminal forfeitures of the seized property.

If you would have told me PRIOR to the Butler assassination attempt that a foreign company directly owned by Russian intelligence and government entities could slip under the radar of the U.S. Secret Service — I would have said you were crazy.

But immediately AFTER the Butler attempt?  Is that even possible?

That’s where I’m tempted to move from simply reporting the story…

Into the realm of chasing my own conspiratorial conjectures about who exactly — on the inside — LET THAT HAPPEN.

But you know what they say.

Yesterday’s ‘conspiracy theorists’ are just tomorrow’s fact-checkers.

Well, maybe not exactly that.  But, you get my drift.

Meanwhile, Lee Reiber and his Russian business associate will be facing federal prosecution in Los Angeles — as soon as Oleg’s extradition flight can be arranged.

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This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

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