Ransomware Negotiator Sentenced for Colluding with BlackCat Attackers

Angelo Martino, a 41-year-old Florida resident and former negotiator for DigitalMint, has been sentenced to 70 months in prison for conspiracy to interfere with interstate commerce by extortion. Instead of minimizing costs for his clients, Martino shared confidential negotiation data with BlackCat ransomware operators to maximize ransom payments in exchange for a cut of the profits.

Between April and September 2023, five clients—including companies in the healthcare, financial services, retail, hospitality, and nonprofit sectors—paid more than $75 million in ransoms. Individual payments ranged from $213,000 to $26.8 million, with millions of these dollars being the result of inflated demands driven by Martino's insider information.

Martino received millions in cryptocurrency from the scheme, which he used to purchase several vehicles, a boat, and two houses in Florida. While the FBI seized some of the cryptocurrency, the court has ordered Martino to forfeit property and pay 10 percent of his post-release salary to compensate victims.

This case follows the April 2026 sentencing of two co-conspirators, Kevin Martin (also a DigitalMint negotiator) and Ryan Goldberg (an incident manager at Sygnia), who both received four-year prison sentences. Martino had previously pleaded guilty and provided substantial assistance that helped lead to the convictions of his accomplices.