BREAKING: 🇪🇺 According to a new POLITICO investigation, Russian-controlled digital-forensics technology has…
Armed Conflict · · Russia
BREAKING: 🇪🇺 According to a new POLITICO investigation, Russian-controlled digital-forensics technology has been used by law-enforcement agencies across Europe.
Oxygen Forensics, a U.S.-based company officially headquartered in Virginia, develops software used to extract and analyse data from smartphones and computers for digital investigations. The U.S. Justice Department has charged the company with concealing that it was owned and operated by Russian nationals.
According to documents reviewed by POLITICO, Oxygen was involved in at least two EU-funded projects focused on collecting, processing and sharing electronic evidence.
The EVIDENCE project received more than €1.9 million in EU funding between 2014 and 2016. Oxygen was listed among companies consulted on improving digital evidence handling, alongside organisations including Europol, Eurojust and OLAF.
The second project, INSPECTr, was backed by Horizon 2020 and developed systems allowing European investigators to combine digital evidence collected using different tools, including Oxygen technology. The project continued until 2023.
The European Commission stressed that Oxygen was not a member of either consortium and did not receive EU funding through those projects. It also said Russian-based entities have been excluded from Horizon Europe since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Oxygen’s technology later expanded into national European law enforcement. According to EU procurement records reviewed by POLITICO, its products were accredited or purchased by police agencies in Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland, with additional procurement identified in Hungary, Romania and Latvia.
In Hungary, police signed a 2024 contract worth around €27,000. In Italy, a 2026 technical document from the Sassari Public Prosecutor’s Office lists Oxygen among recognised mobile-data extraction systems. In Spain, a 2026 study involving a National Police inspector accredited by Oxygen examined WhatsApp data analysis.
The U.S. Justice Department alleges that Oxygen’s software was developed and managed by a team in Russia under Russian national Oleg Sergeyevich Davydov, while the company presented itself as being led by American executive Lee Reiber. Both have been arrested, according to the Justice Department.
Prosecutors allege that after sanctions were imposed on Russia in 2022, Oxygen’s Russian owners concealed their ownership and continued developing the software in Russia.
The same individuals allegedly controlled Russian company MKO Systems, which sold the underlying technology to Russia’s FSB and Interior Ministry.
Importantly, the Justice Department complaint does not allege that Oxygen’s software contained malicious code or that it was used to gain unauthorised access to customers’ systems or data.
POLITICO also reports that Oxygen technology was supplied to Moroccan authorities through an EU-funded border-management programme, including training for Moroccan police.
The company’s website has since been seized by the U.S. government, while investigators seized corporate bank accounts, 57 domains and other infrastructure allegedly connected to the activities described in the case.
Source: @GeoInsider
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