ANGELO Martino, 41, of Land O’Lakes, Florida, has pleaded guilty to aiding ransomware attackers by working as a negotiator for the BlackCat operators from April 2023. He admitted to providing confidential information about negotiating positions and the victims’ insurance policy limits to the BlackCat attackers without the clients’ or his employer’s knowledge or permission, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Martino, who worked for DigitalMint, orchestrated incidents with two other responders, Ryan Goldberg and Kevin Martin, to deploy BlackCat against multiple U.S. victims between April and November 2023, with Goldberg employed by Sygnia. In one case, the group extorted about $1.2 million in Bitcoin from a victim, and authorities seized $10 million in assets from Martino, including digital currency, a vehicle, a food truck and a luxury fishing boat.
Martino has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to obstruct, delay or affect commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce by extortion and is to be sentenced on 9 July 2026, facing up to 20 years in prison.