Ransomware negotiator secretly worked for the attackers
▼ Summary
– A former ransomware negotiator, Angelo Martino, was sentenced to 70 months in prison for colluding with BlackCat scammers to inflate ransoms for victims he was hired to protect.
– Martino provided confidential negotiation information to cybercriminals in exchange for a cut of ransom payments, leading five victims to pay over $75 million.
– He pleaded guilty and sought a 24-month sentence, citing assistance that led to the conviction of two co-defendants: Kevin Martin and Ryan Goldberg.
– Martin and Goldberg, also involved in the scheme, were each sentenced to four years in prison in April 2026.
– Martino must forfeit property and pay 10% of future salary to compensate victims; the FBI seized cryptocurrency from him, but he had already used much of it to buy houses, a boat, and vehicles.
A former ransomware negotiator who secretly worked alongside the very cybercriminals he was hired to combat has been sentenced to 70 months in federal prison. Angelo Martino, a 41-year-old Florida resident, was employed by DigitalMint to negotiate with ransomware attackers on behalf of victims, but instead collaborated with the BlackCat ransomware group to drive up ransom demands for personal profit.
According to a sentencing memorandum filed by the US government on Tuesday, Martino’s official role was “to negotiate with cybercriminals to mitigate the ransoms paid by [DigitalMint’s] clients.” However, he betrayed that trust by providing attackers with confidential negotiation information designed to maximize payouts. In exchange, Martino received a cut of the ransom proceeds. Five of the victims he was supposed to help ultimately paid over $75 million to ransomware affiliates, with authorities suspecting that millions of those dollars were inflated directly because of Martino’s insider tips.
Martino pleaded guilty to the charges and requested a 24-month sentence, arguing he had provided “substantial assistance” that led to the indictment and conviction of two co-defendants. Those co-defendants, identified in a November 2025 report, were Kevin Martin of Texas, another DigitalMint negotiator, and Ryan Goldberg of Georgia, an incident manager at security firm Sygnia. Both Martin and Goldberg were each sentenced to four years in prison in April 2026. Martino’s name had not been publicly linked to the scheme until authorities unsealed charges against him earlier this year.
As part of his sentence, Martino must forfeit property and pay 10 percent of any future salary after his release. The government is expected to submit a proposed forfeiture order by next week. Court documents reveal that Martino received millions of dollars in cryptocurrency from the conspiracy. While the FBI managed to seize some of those digital assets, Martino had already spent a significant portion on two Florida homes, a boat, and several vehicles.
(Source: Ars Technica)
