Former negotiator pleads guilty in BlackCat ransomware plot

A former ransomware negotiator pleaded guilty this week to conspiring with the ransomware actor BlackCat/ALPHV to commit attacks against US companies in 2023, according to a statement from the Department of Justice. Angelo Martino, 41, of Land O'Lakes, Florida, collaborated with BlackCat/ALPHV to extort organisations beginning in April 2023.

He provided BlackCat attackers with confidential information about negotiating positions and strategies of his clients, including victim insurance policy limits, without the clients’ or his employer’s knowledge or permission.

Martino worked with two other cybersecurity professionals, Ryan Goldberg of Georgia and Kevin Martin of Texas, and they deployed BlackCat ransomware against multiple US-based victims between April and November 2023, with one victim extorted for about $1.2 million in Bitcoin, which they then split three ways and laundered.

Law enforcement has seized approximately $10 million in assets to date, and Martino will be sentenced on 9 July, with the two others due for sentencing on 30 April, each facing a maximum of 20 years in prison.