A US company that provided surveillance and data-mining software to the Pentagon and other government agencies was in fact owned by a Russian company that also sold software to Russian spy agencies, US authorities charged.
Oxygen Forensics chief executive -- Lee Reiber, 55, of Idaho – was arrested and released on bail on September 22, US prosecutors said.
A Russian man -- Oleg Davydov, 52, of Moscow – was arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport two days earlier, and US officials said they will seek his extradition.
In an indictment released on September 23, US prosecutors said Oxygen Forensics – and Reiber in particular – allegedly told the US government that the Virginia-registered company had no foreign ownership or control and that its software was developed in the United States.
In fact, prosecutors said, Oxygen Forensics is allegedly owned by Davydov and four other unnamed Russian citizens who also ran a Moscow-based company that provides software and technical services to the Federal Security Services, Russia’s main intelligence agency.
Davydov and his partners allegedly moved to conceal Oxygen Forensics’ ownership after 2022, when the United States and other Western countries tightened regulations following Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine.
The software Oxygen provided to the Pentagon, the Secret Service, and other agencies did not contain malicious code, US authorities said, and it was not used to gain access to any government computer systems.
Both Reiber and Davydov were charged with wire fraud. Reiber did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment. Davydov could not be located for comment.
The announcement comes as hacking, cyberespionage, malware, and other malicious computer activities has exploded in use around the world.
Government agencies – Russian, US, Chinese, Israeli, Iranian – have invested massive sums into building out new cyber capabilities, and private companies increasingly have access to powerful new non-government tools.
The FBI on September 23 announced it was investigating a claim that a hacker group had stolen sensitive files belonging to thousands of agents and applicants and that it had compromised the bureau's jobs website.
