The U.S. Division of Justice charged one other former DigitalMint worker for his involvement in an insider scheme by which ransomware negotiators secretly partnered with the BlackCat (ALPHV) ransomware operation.
Angelo Martino has been charged with one rely of conspiracy to intervene with interstate commerce by extortion after surrendering to the U.S. Marshals on March 10.
In accordance with unsealed court docket paperwork, Martino shared confidential info relating to ongoing negotiations with BlackCat operators whereas working as a ransomware negotiator for DigitalMint, a cybersecurity firm specializing in ransomware incident responses.
Between April 2023 and April 2025, Martino was additionally immediately concerned in ransomware assaults alongside accomplices Kevin Tyler Martin (a former DigitalMint worker) and Ryan Goldberg (a former Sygnia incident response supervisor).
Martino was beforehand recognized solely as “Co-Conspirator 1” in an October 2025 indictment that charged Martin and Goldberg, who pleaded responsible and are scheduled to be sentenced in April.
The defendants allegedly operated as BlackCat associates, demanding ransom funds whereas threatening to leak knowledge stolen from victims’ networks. Prosecutors additionally claimed that the defendants have been paying the BlackCat directors a 20% share of collected ransoms in trade for entry to the ransomware and extortion portal.
The listing of victims included no less than 5 U.S. organizations, amongst them a Tampa-based medical machine producer that paid a $1.27 million ransom. Different targets embrace organizations and corporations throughout a variety of industries, similar to medical amenities, legislation companies, college districts, and monetary providers firms.
In a press release to BleepingComputer, DigitalMint CEO Jonathan Solomon condemned the conduct, noting that the corporate had terminated each after studying of Martin and Martino’s actions and had absolutely cooperated with legislation enforcement from the outset of the investigation.
“We strongly condemn these former staff’ prison conduct, which violated our values, moral requirements, and the legislation. After we discovered concerning the conduct, we instantly terminated each people,” Solomon mentioned.
“DigitalMint has absolutely cooperated with legislation enforcement from the outset and doesn’t count on additional prices. Whereas no group can fully get rid of insider danger, we take incidents like this extraordinarily severely and have strengthened safeguards and inner controls to additional scale back the chance of comparable conduct.”
BlackCat ransomware was beforehand linked by the FBI to greater than 60 breaches between November 2021 and March 2022. In a separate advisory, the bureau additionally mentioned the cybercrime gang raked in no less than $300 million in funds from over 1,000 victims till September 2023.
Years earlier, in 2019, ProPublica reported that some U.S. knowledge restoration companies secretly paid ransomware gangs that have been pressuring their shoppers with ransom calls for, whereas charging prospects for restoration providers with out disclosing these funds.
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