Camilla Jessen
ICE uses phone tracking software produced by a firm associated with the Russian FSB secret service.
According to reporting cited by TVPWorld, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed a three-year contract in September 2024 with Virginia-based Oxygen Forensics Inc. The agreement covers software capable of extracting smartphone metadata, geolocation history, deleted files and app data, compiling the information into searchable reports.
The tools are commonly used in criminal investigations to analyze digital devices and retrieve communications, including encrypted or deleted material.
An analysis by Olga Lautman, a senior researcher at the Center for European Policy Analysis, and journalist Andrei Lucikov examined the company’s background.
They reported that Oxygen Software was founded in Moscow in the early 2000s before expanding to the United States in 2013 under the name Oxygen Forensics Inc.
U.S. government records show the firm has held contracts with ICE, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Protection and the State Department.
In Russia, the original company was later renamed MKO-Systems and developed a parallel entity known as Mobile Forensic, which researchers say became a leading smartphone data extraction provider for Russian authorities.
Sanctioned figures cited
The investigation states that Russian procurement documents and court records show the Russian counterpart’s tools were supplied to agencies including the FSB and the Interior Ministry, and were used in politically sensitive cases.
Lautman and Lucikov also reported that Eduard Benderski, a sanctioned Russian businessman and former FSB member, was an investor in the Oxygen holding. Benderski is the father-in-law of Maksim Yakubets, whom the FBI has identified as a leader of the cybercrime group Evil Corp.
The United States has offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Yakubets’ arrest. Benderski has also been sanctioned for allegedly helping connect Evil Corp with Russian intelligence and shielding its members.
Security concerns raised
In 2021, Oxygen Software obtained a license from the FSB allowing it to operate and contract with Russian government bodies, according to the researchers.
Oxygen Forensics CEO Oleg Fedorov previously told Forbes that no employee had worked for the modern-day FSB. “I know that every person and every government has their own goals. I try to distance myself as much as possible from their goals and solve my own,” he said.
Lautman and Lucikov wrote that “digital forensics tools with documented Russian corporate origins, historical ties to Moscow’s security ecosystem, sanctioned individuals and entities, and parallel product development paths operate within U.S. federal investigative systems.”
They added: “Congress must examine how these contracts were approved, what safeguards are in place, and why federal agencies are relying on technology tied to an adversary’s security ecosystem.”
There is no public evidence of direct operational cooperation between U.S. agencies and Russian intelligence through the software. Oxygen Forensics remains registered as a federal contractor through September 2026.
Sources: TVPWorld, Center for European Policy Analysis, U.S. federal procurement records, Forbes.
