Cybersecurity Negotiator Colluded With BlackCat Ransomware Group to Extort Companies for Bitcoin
BlackCat, also known as ALPHV, operates as a ransomware-as-a-service group, while negotiators are supposed to represent victim companies and seek lower ransom demands. Angelo Martino instead used his position to obtain clients’ insurance limits and negotiating thresholds, then shared the information with hackers so they could demand more. The case has undermined corporate trust in cybersecurity incident-response providers, prompting the U.S. Justice Department and FBI to treat insiders as a key link in efforts to dismantle the ransomware ecosystem.
The Justice Department said Martino helped extort five clients beginning in April 2023. Between April and November that year, he also joined Kevin Martin and Ryan Goldberg in attacking other companies. One case yielded about $1.2 million in bitcoin, which they divided and laundered. Martino pleaded guilty on April 14, 2026, and was sentenced to 70 months in prison on July 9. Law enforcement has seized $10 million in assets, and a restitution hearing is scheduled for September 17.
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The history behind this eventFormer Ransomware Negotiator Gets 70 Months for Colluding With BlackCat
The case exposes the threat that insiders pose to cybersecurity defenses. Companies hit by ransomware have often relied on negotiators at cybersecurity firms to limit their losses. But Angelo Martino, a former negotiator at U.S. cybersecurity company DigitalMint, was motivated by greed to secretly disclose clients’ negotiating strategies and insurance limits to the BlackCat ransomware group. The information helped the group demand larger ransoms and deprived the clients of negotiating leverage.
A U.S. federal court sentenced Martino to 70 months in prison on July 9, 2026. Investigators found that between April and September 2023, his actions led to ransom demands totaling as much as $75.3 million against five DigitalMint clients, from which he took a cut. U.S. law enforcement authorities have also seized about $10 million in illicit proceeds from him. His two accomplices were each sentenced to 48 months in prison in early 2026.
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