According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in a press release published on April 20, 2026:
According to court documents, Angelo Martino, 41, of Land O’Lakes, Florida, collaborated with the operators of the Blackcat/ALPHV (“BlackCat”) ransomware variant used by cybercriminals to attack and extort institutions and companies. Beginning in April 2023, Martino abused his role at a U.S.-based cyber incident response company to assist BlackCat actors. Working as a negotiator on behalf of five different ransomware victims, Martino provided BlackCat attackers with confidential information about the negotiating position and strategy of his company’s clients without the clients’ or his employer’s knowledge or permission. This confidential information assisted the ransomware actors and maximized the ransoms that the victims were required to pay. The confidential information included the victims’ insurance policy limits and internal negotiation positions. The BlackCat actors paid Martino for this confidential information.
Additionally, Martino has admitted to conspiring with Ryan Goldberg of Georgia and Kevin Martin of Texas to successfully deploy BlackCat ransomware between April 2023 and November 2023 against multiple victims located throughout the United States. All three men worked in the cybersecurity industry and leveraged their knowledge and skills to commit these crimes. 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.
At the time, Martino was employed by DigitalMint at the time. The company condemned his actions stating that they were "concaled from th ecompany" and that they assisted the Justice Department in the investigation. In a quote provided to The Record, the company stated that "the actions were in violation of the company's policy and ethical standards, and that it had terminated both Martino and Martin after their behavior came to light.
