Former ransomware negotiator sentenced to 70 months in prison for BlackCat attacks
In a striking case of insider betrayal within the cybersecurity industry, a former employee of incident response firm DigitalMint has been sentenced to 70 months in U.S. federal prison for participating in BlackCat (ALPHV) ransomware attacks, according to BleepingComputer. Angelo Martino, 41, worked professionally as a ransomware negotiator — helping victims deal with extortionists — while secretly conducting attacks of his own.
Court documents show that between April 2023 and April 2025, Martino carried out BlackCat attacks alongside two other former negotiators from DigitalMint and Sygnia: Ryan Clifford Goldberg and Kevin Tyler Martin, both of whom pleaded guilty in December and received four-year sentences in May. Operating as BlackCat affiliates, the trio encrypted victims’ systems, threatened to leak stolen data, and paid the ransomware’s administrators a 20% cut of the proceeds.
Prosecutors say Martino also abused his legitimate role in the most direct way possible: while negotiating on behalf of five victim organizations, he fed confidential details about their insurance policy limits and negotiating positions to the ransomware operators, helping them extort the maximum possible amounts. In one case a victim paid a ransom worth approximately $16.5 million. Victims of the group included a financial services firm that paid $25.66 million, a nonprofit that paid $26.79 million, school districts, medical facilities, and law firms.
DigitalMint said it fired the individuals immediately upon learning of their conduct and condemned their actions as violations of the company’s values and the law. The FBI has previously linked BlackCat to more than 1,000 victims and at least $300 million in ransom payments collected through September 2023.