Russian plot uncovered to ‘infiltrate US Secret Service’

An alleged Russian plot to infiltrate the US Secret Service has been uncovered.

Lee Reiber, the chief executive of Oxygen Forensics, is accused of concealing his company’s Russian links before it was taken on by the US Secret Service.

He allegedly told the US government that Russia had no role in the company. However, five Russian nationals secretly owned and controlled it, prosecutors said, while its software was developed and managed in Russia, according to the US department of justice (DoJ).

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Oxygen Forensics, a digital forensics company based in Alexandria, Virginia, makes software to recover, preserve, and analyse electronic data from digital devices.

Prosecutors allege the company’s software, developed by Mr Davydov in 2013, had previously been sold to the Russian federal security service, the Russian investigative committee and the Russian ministry of internal affairs.

Mr Reiber joined Oxygen Forensics in 2015 and was later made chief executive of the company in March 2022, one month after the invasion of Ukraine and after the US imposed expanded sanctions on Russia.

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“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,” the Attorney’s Office said.

‘Russian owners removed from filings’

“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,” according to court filings.

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A month later, a reporter asked Mr Reiber about his connections to Russia.

In an email uncovered by investigators, Mr Reiber wrote to Mr Davydov and two other Russian owners that if the Russian connections were uncovered, it had the potential to “destroy this entire opportunity”, referring to the pending contract, and that the “current existence of this company hangs in the balance”, according to the DoJ.

In September 2024, the Secret Service awarded Oxygen a five-year contract for its software.

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Prosecutors say this was false and that the software was developed in Russia, and written and managed by a team in Russia.

If convicted, both Mr Reiber and Mr Davydov could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

(*) Full article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2026/09/24/russian-plot-uncovered-to-infiltrate-us-secret-service/