Ransomware Negotiator Sentenced to 70 Months in Prison for Cooperating with BlackCat Operators
A federal judge has handed a 70-month prison sentence to a former ransomware negotiator who secretly cooperated with BlackCat operators and assisted in multiple extortion schemes. Authorities say the 41-year-old worked with the now-defunct BlackCat gang and teamed up with two other cybersecurity professionals to facilitate attacks on victims across the United States during 2023.
Prosecutors depicted Angelo Martino, 41, of Land O’Lakes, Florida, as a “double agent” who exploited his position to increase both the damage to those he was retained to help and the profit taken by criminals who paid him a cut of ransoms, according to the government’s sentencing memorandum. Martino entered a guilty plea in April to a one-count information charging him with conspiring to interfere with interstate commerce by extortion.
Federal filings say Martino acted as a negotiator for five separate ransomware victims while clandestinely passing sensitive information to BlackCat operators. The material he supplied allegedly included insurance policy limits and internal negotiation strategies, enabling the attackers to push for larger ransom demands than victims would have otherwise faced.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division described victims’ testimony about near-catastrophic business losses and the additional betrayal they experienced when the person hired to help them instead sided with ransomware criminals.
Investigators also allege Martino collaborated with two other cybersecurity practitioners to deploy BlackCat between April and November 2023. Those charged alongside him were Ryan Goldberg, 41, of Georgia, and Kevin Martin, 36, of Texas. Martino and Martin were employed by DigitalMint, while Goldberg served as an incident response manager at Sygnia. Goldberg and Martin pleaded guilty in December and were each sentenced in May 2026 to four years in prison for their roles in the intrusions.
U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida emphasized that Martino was retained to assist victims during crises but instead betrayed their trust by supplying confidential negotiating positions to criminals, helping to extract greater ransoms. He added that the case underscores the Justice Department’s commitment to pursuing both the perpetrators of ransomware and insiders who enable them, as well as recovering funds stolen from American victims.
The Justice Department reports that law enforcement has seized about $10 million in assets connected to Martino so far. Confiscated property includes cryptocurrency, several vehicles, a food truck, and a luxury fishing boat that authorities say were purchased with illicit proceeds. Martino is scheduled to return to court on September 17, 2026, when a judge will determine the precise amount of restitution he must pay.
FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Brett Leatherman said that Martino betrayed the very people who hired him, handing BlackCat actors confidential negotiation details to inflate ransoms and enrich himself.