The ransomware negotiator who was working for the other side
A Florida man, Angelo John Martino III, was sentenced to 70 months in prison for secretly providing ransomware negotiation details and actively deploying BlackCat ransomware alongside two colleagues. He exploited his role as a ransomware negotiator to feed information to the BlackCat group, enabling them to inflate ransom demands and ultimately facilitated over $75.3 million in payments from multiple victims, including a hospitality company that paid nearly $16.5 million and a non-profit organization that paid nearly $26.8 million. The FBI is investigating DigitalMint as an unwitting participant and is working to regulate the increasingly unregulated field of ransomware negotiation.
A Florida man, Angelo John Martino III, was sentenced to 70 months in prison for a complex scheme involving ransomware negotiation and active deployment of BlackCat ransomware. Martino worked as a ransomware negotiator for DigitalMint, a Chicago-based incident response company, and his job was to mediate communications with BlackCat (ALPHV) ransomware groups on behalf of his clients. However, starting in April 2023, he began secretly sharing sensitive information with the BlackCat group, including details of his clients’ cyber-insurance policies and negotiation strategies.
He provided the criminals with information about victim’s financial circumstances and insurance payout limits. For example, he secretly informed a BlackCat affiliate that the victim’s insurance company had only approved a limited payout. Simultaneously, Martino and his colleagues, Kevin Martin and Ryan Goldberg, were actively deploying BlackCat ransomware against other victims, successfully extorting US $1.2 million from a medical device company.
Martino and his colleagues kept 80% of the ransoms and paid 20% to the BlackCat gang. The scheme resulted in five of Martino’s clients collectively making over US $75.3 million in ransom payments between April and September 2023, including a hospitality company that paid nearly US $16.5 million and a non-profit organization that paid nearly US $26.8 million. DigitalMint has been described as an ‘unknowing victim’ and has since implemented changes to its negotiation protocols to prevent similar incidents. The FBI is investigating DigitalMint and working to establish a registry for the increasingly unregulated world of ransomware negotiation. Martino spent the cryptocurrency proceeds of his criminal activity on two Florida properties, a boat, and several vehicles, and US authorities have seized US $10 million of his assets. A hearing in September will determine what other restitution he will have to make.