London’s Metropolitan Police has stopped using digital forensic software from Oxygen Forensics while authorities examine allegations that the US-based company concealed its Russian ownership and development operations.
The decision widens the fallout surrounding Oxygen Forensics, whose technology has been used to extract and analyze information from phones, computers and other electronic devices during criminal investigations.
The Metropolitan Police began a three-year contract with Oxygen in December 2023. Scotland Yard has now paused its use of the technology while conducting a full review following the allegations made by US prosecutors.
The force said Oxygen’s software accounted for less than 0.2% of its digital forensic activity during the previous year and was operated within a closed IT environment. It also said information obtained during investigations was not shared with Oxygen Forensics. The company’s European presence extends far beyond London.
Oxygen technology has been purchased, approved or used by law enforcement authorities in countries including Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland and Hungary. Romanian and Latvian authorities have also recently reassessed their use of the company’s products. Documents additionally connect Oxygen technology to two projects funded by the European Union.
The EVIDENCE project, which operated between 2014 and 2016, examined ways of improving the exchange of digital evidence across Europe. Oxygen Forensics was among the companies consulted during the project.
Another initiative, INSPECTr, ran from 2019 until 2023. Technology developed through that project could process information extracted using forensic products including Oxygen’s software. The European Commission has said Oxygen was not a member of either project’s consortium and did not directly receive EU funding.
The scrutiny follows US criminal charges against Oxygen Forensics CEO Lee Reiber and Russian national Oleg Davydov.
Prosecutors allege that five Russian nationals, including Davydov, secretly owned and controlled Oxygen through a Cyprus-based holding company. They also allegedly controlled a Russian business now known as MKO Systems, which sold related forensic technology to Russia’s FSB, Investigative Committee and Interior Ministry.
Davydov was arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport as US authorities seek his extradition. Reiber was arrested in Idaho and later released on bond. Both are accused of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
US prosecutors claim Oxygen presented itself to American government customers as an independent US company while concealing Russian ownership and the involvement of developers working in Russia.
The allegations do not establish that Oxygen’s forensic software contained malicious code. Prosecutors have also not accused the company of secretly accessing information stored on customer systems.
That distinction remains important as European agencies review their exposure. The current case concerns allegations that the company’s ownership, control and software-development arrangements were misrepresented, rather than evidence that its forensic products were themselves used to compromise Western law-enforcement networks.
The Metropolitan Police has said it expects any effect on active investigations to be extremely limited, but its review adds to growing scrutiny of how widely Oxygen’s technology entered European law-enforcement environments before the alleged Russian ownership structure became the subject of a US criminal case.