Former Ransomware Negotiator Pleads Guilty to Aiding Attackers

A former ransomware negotiator has pleaded guilty to charges he helped a ransomware group extort tens of millions of dollars from companies.

Angelo Martino, 41, of Land O’Lakes, Florida, worked for a cyber incident response company as a ransomware negotiator but used his position to provide operators of the Blackcat/ALPHV ransomware variant with confidential information regarding victims in order to maximize ransom payments, said the U.S. Department of Justice.

“Ransomware victims turned to this defendant for help, and he sold them out from the inside,” said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida.

In exchange for a cut of the profits, Martino told the ransomware group information like the companies’ insurance policy limits and internal negotiation positions, authorities said. Law enforcement to date has seized $10 million in assets—including digital currency, a food truck, and a luxury fishing boat—from Martino.

Trusted to work on behalf of victims, Martin “betrayed them and began launching ransomware attacks himself by assisting cyber criminals and harming victims, his own employer, and the cyber incident response industry,” added Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

While working for Chicago-based cybersecurity firm DigitalMint, Martino conspired with two other men, Ryan Goldberg of Georgia and Kevin Martin of Texas, to deploy Blackcat ransomware between April and November 2023 against multiple victims throughout the United States. The DOJ said that after extorting one victim of $1.2 million in Bitcoin, they split the profit and laundered the money in various ways.

Goldberg and Martin were indicted in November 2025. Martino was an unnamed third person in that indictment. At the time, it was revealed Martin was also an employee of DigitalMint. Goldberg reportedly worked for another cybersecurity form called Sygnia.

Martino pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to obstruct, delay or affect commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce by extortion. He faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced July 9.

Martin and Goldberg late last year entered guilty pleas on the same charge and are scheduled to be sentenced April 30.