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The U.S. Department of Justice announced a Florida man has pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit ransomware attacks after being employed as a ransomware negotiator.
According to court documents, Angelo Martino, 41, of Land O’Lakes, Fla., collaborated with the operators of the Blackcat/ALPHV (“BlackCat”) ransomware variant used by cybercriminals to attack and extort institutions and companies. Starting in April 2023, Martino used his role at a U.S.-based cyber incident response company to assist the cybercriminals in their illicit activities. Martino worked as a negotiator on behalf of five different ransomware victims then provided BlackCat attackers with confidential information about the negotiating position and strategy of his company’s clients without the clients’ or his employer’s knowledge of permission, the DOJ said. That information maximized ransoms the victims were then required to pay. The BlackCat actors then paid Martino for the information he provided to them.
Additionally, Martino admitted to conspiring with Ryan Goldberg of Georgia and Kevin Martin of Texas to deploy BlackCat ransomware between April 2023 and November 2023 against multiple victims across the country. All three men worked in the cybersecurity industry and leveraged their knowledge and skills to commit the crimes. After successfully extorting one victim for $1.2 million in Bitcoin, the three men split the ransom and laundered the money through various means.
Law enforcement seized $10 million in assets from Martino, including digital currency, vehicles, a food truck and a luxury fishing boat, all obtained using proceeds from his crimes.
“Angelo Martino’s clients trusted him to respond to ransomware threats and help thwart and remedy them on behalf of victims,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said. “Instead, he betrayed them and began launching ransomware attacks himself by assisting cyber criminals and harming victims, his own employer, and the cyber incident response industry itself.”
Martino pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct, delay or affect commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce by extortion. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison at his sentencing on July 9.
Martino and Goldberg have also entered guilty pleas to the same charge, and each faces a maximum of 20 years in prison when they are sentenced on April 30.
