An Idaho tech CEO allegedly concealed his company’s Russian ownership while pursuing contracts with some of the nation’s top security agencies, including the Defense Department, the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security, authorities said.
The Justice Department announced Wednesday that the CEO and a Russian national he allegedly worked with have been arrested on fraud charges.
Lee Reiber of Boise was arrested Sunday in Idaho, while Oleg Sergeyevich Davydov, 52, of Moscow, was taken into custody the same day in London, according to a Justice Department release.
The alleged scheme also targeted the National Computer Forensics Institute and the DHS Office of Inspector General.
According to the DOJ, Reiber’s company, Oxygen Forensics, repeatedly presented itself as an independent, U.S.-owned digital forensics company with software developed in America. In reality, prosecutors say, the company was owned by Davydov and four other Russians, and its software was created in Russia.
The DOJ said the pair launched the alleged scheme in 2022, agreeing to hide the true ownership of the Virginia-based company after the United States imposed expanded sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
Reiber was installed as the company’s CEO, president and chairman of the board in March 2022, and the Russian owners were then removed from the company’s public corporate filings, according to the Justice Department.
But prosecutors say the Russian owners never truly stepped aside. They allegedly continued to make significant decisions, 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, the DOJ said.
The alleged scheme nearly unraveled in November 2023, when a reporter asked Reiber about Oxygen Forensics’ ownership and its connection to the Russian company, according to an affidavit.
Reiber then allegedly wrote to Davydov and two other Russian owners, warning that public reporting on the connection “could destroy this entire opportunity.” He was referring to a pending contract with the National Computer Forensics Institute. Reiber also allegedly wrote that the “current existence of this company hangs in the balance.”
The scheme allegedly paid off. In September 2024, the NCFI awarded a five-year contract for the company’s software. The award file included Reiber’s October 2023 certification that the company had no immediate or highest-level owner.
Prosecutors also allege that 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.
According to the DOJ, Reiber knew at the time that the company’s Russian owners were foreign persons who controlled its decisions. One of them had recently been appointed to the company’s board under a Turkish identity, prosecutors said.
The case centers on allegations that the pair worked to keep federal agencies in the dark about who really controlled the company and where its software was built, all while it sought business with agencies responsible for protecting the nation’s security.
Reiber and Davydov each face a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted.
