United States of America v. Angelo Martino

Miami, Florida, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with conspiring with Blackcat/ALPHV (BlackCat) actors to extort multiple victims, as well as conspiring with other former cybersecurity professionals to attack additional victims in 2023.

Reported by Kent Morlan

Angelo Martino, 41, of Land O’Lakes, Florida, abused his role at a U.S.-based cyber incident response company and conspired with the operators of the BlackCat ransomware variant beginning in April 2023 to extort five different ransomware victims. Specifically, Martino was paid by BlackCat attackers to provide confidential information about the negotiating position and strategy of his employer’s clients and enable the ransomware actors to maximize the ransoms paid by the victims.

Additionally, Martino conspired with former cybersecurity professionals Kevin Martin, age 36, of Texas, who was hired as Martino’s coworker after the conspiracy began, and Ryan Goldberg, age 41, of Georgia, who was employed by a separate incident response company, to successfully deploy BlackCat ransomware against additional victims located throughout the United States between April 2023 and November 2023. After successfully extorting one victim for approximately $1.2 million in Bitcoin, the men split their share of the ransom three ways and laundered the funds through various means.

The Defendant was found guilty and was sentenced to 70 months in prison.

If you are a victim of ransomware, contact your local FBI field office or file a report at ic3.gov.