Lee Reiber, a former Boise police detective, is accused of hiding the Russian ownership of a digital forensics company while its software was sold to U.S. investigators. Federal prosecutors announced a wire-fraud conspiracy charge on Sept. 23 against Reiber, 55, and Russian national Oleg Davydov. Boise Police says the department once used the company's tools.
Boise police once used the company's software
Boise Police told CBS2 that Reiber worked for the department from March 1995 until August 2009 and was a detective. The department confirmed it had used Oxygen Forensics software alongside other data extraction programs. It says it stopped using the product more than a year ago and has no current concerns about cases Reiber handled during his police career.
Reiber became CEO, president and board chair of Virginia-based Oxygen Forensics in March 2022, according to the Justice Department. He was arrested in Idaho on Sept. 20 and released on bond after appearing in federal court in Boise on Sept. 22. An arraignment in Los Angeles federal court is expected in the coming weeks.
Prosecutors challenge the company's ownership claims
The Justice Department alleges that five Russian nationals controlled Oxygen Forensics through a holding company in Cyprus, and that developers in Russia wrote its forensic software. Prosecutors say the owners were removed from public company filings after the United States expanded sanctions on Russia in 2022 but retained control behind the scenes.
According to the complaint, Reiber certified in 2022 and 2023 that the firm had no immediate or highest-level owner. Prosecutors also say he told Homeland Security personnel in March 2026 that no Russian was involved in developing its software. The alleged misrepresentations matter because the firm's federal customers included the Secret Service and its National Computer Forensics Institute, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Defense Department. The case asks whether public agencies were given an accurate account of the business behind a tool they purchased for investigations.
The federal filing also describes how the alleged ownership disclosures relate to the software itself. Prosecutors say a team in Russia wrote and managed the program, while Reiber allegedly represented to the government that it was developed in the United States. The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General is also identified among the government customers. These claims concern the vendor's ownership and development, not a demonstrated compromise of police evidence or federal computer systems.
The charge does not allege malicious software
The federal complaint does not claim the product contained malicious code or that anyone used it to gain unauthorized access to a customer's systems or data. Nor does an arrest establish guilt. Reiber and Davydov are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
For Idaho readers, the local link is concrete but limited: a former Boise detective led the company, and Boise Police once used its software. The department says that use ended more than a year ago. The question of whether federal buyers were misled about the company's ownership now belongs to the courts, while the department's statement addresses its own past use of the tools.