41-year-old Angelo Martino, a former employee of the cybersecurity incident response company DigitalMint, pleaded guilty to targeting American companies in BlackCat (ALPHV) attacks in 2023.
Along with two others involved in the Sygnia and DigitalMint ransomware (33-year-old Ryan Clifford Goldberg and 28-year-old Kevin Tyler Martin), Martino was charged with conspiracy to interfere with interstate commerce by extortion, interference with international commerce by robbery, and willful damage to protected computers.
Martino was initially identified only as “Co-Conspirator 1” in the October 2025 lawsuit, but was named in unsealed court documents in March. Martin and Goldberg also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct trade by racketeering and face up to 20 years in prison each.
According to court documents, while working for five victims, Martino shared confidential information about the victims’ negotiating positions and insurance policy limits with BlackCat ransomware operators, helping cybercriminals extort the highest possible amount.
Between April 2023 and April 2025, he was also involved in the BlackCat ransomware attack alongside associates Kevin Tyler Martin and Ryan Goldberg.
While operating as affiliates of BlackCat, the three defendants demanded ransom payments and threatened victims by leaking stolen data before encrypting their systems. Prosecutors added that the three associates paid BlackCat executives 20% of all proceeds for the ransomware and fraud site.
Their victims included at least five US organizations, among them a financial services company that paid $25,660,000 and a non-profit organization that paid a ransom of $26,793,000, as well as law firms, school districts, medical facilities, and other financial services companies.
DigitalMint CEO Jonathan Solomon told BleepingComputer that the company has condemned past misconduct and noted that Martin and Martino were fired after their actions were discovered.
“We strongly condemn the criminal behavior of these former employees, which violates our values, moral standards, and the law. When we heard about the behavior, we immediately shut them both down,” said Solomon.
BlackCat ransomware activity has been linked by the FBI to more than 60 breaches between November 2021 and March 2022. In another advisory, the bureau added that the cybercrime group has collected at least $300 million in ransom payments from more than 1,000 victims until September 2023.
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