A ransomware negotiator has been sentenced to 70 months in prison after secretly conspiring with hackers to extort clients.
Angelo Martino, 41, of Land O’Lakes, Florida, worked at US-based cyber incident response company DigitalMint in April 2023 when he started conspiring with the operators of the BlackCat ransomware group.
BlackCat paid Martino to provide confidential information about the negotiating position and strategy of his employer’s clients, along with the details of their ransomware insurance, to help maximize the ransoms paid.
Notably, Martino also conspired with two former cybersecurity professionals between April 2023 and November 2023.
Kevin Martin, 36, of Texas, was hired as Martino’s co-worker at DigitalMint after the conspiracy began. Ryan Goldberg, 41, of Georgia, was manager of incident response at Sygnia.
All told, Martino was found to have extorted five different victims as part of his collaboration with the cyber crime syndicate while the trio also worked to deploy BlackCat ransomware against victims across the country.
Assistant attorney general A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said victims had shared “heartbreaking accounts of how their businesses were nearly destroyed” during the trail.
“Today’s sentence accounts for the harm Martino caused and demonstrates that the Department of Justice can and will identify and prosecute cybercriminals to the fullest extent of the law.”
Working with the enemy
After successfully extorting one victim for around $1.2 million in Bitcoin, the men split their share of the ransom three ways and laundered the funds through various means.
Jason A. Reding Quiñones, attorney for the Southern District of Florida, said more than $10 million in criminal proceeds have been seized. These assets include digital currency, vehicles, a food truck, and a luxury fishing boat.
A separate hearing has been set for September 17 to decide the amount of restitution to be ordered against Martino.
The Justice Department started working to bring down BlackCat three years ago, developing a decryption tool that allowed FBI field offices across the US and law enforcement partners around the world to help victims restore their systems.
The scheme has reportedly saved victims from paying out $99 million in ransom payments so far. The FBI also seized several BlackCat websites at the same time.
“This case sends a clear message: we will pursue the hackers who deploy ransomware, the insiders who enable them, and the money they steal from American victims,” Quiñones said.
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