Former ransomware negotiator sentenced to 70 months for helping attack U.S. victims
Angelo Martino, a former employee of a U.S.-based cyber incident-response company, was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison after conspiring with BlackCat/ALPHV ransomware operators to extort five victims and helping target additional victims, the Justice Department said.
Martino, 41, of Land O’Lakes, Florida, was sentenced on July 9, 2026. The case provides a completed federal enforcement outcome in a ransomware investigation involving a person who had worked in the cybersecurity and incident-response field.
What prosecutors said happened
Court documents said Martino began conspiring with BlackCat/ALPHV operators in April 2023. The conspiracy involved efforts to extort five ransomware victims in the United States.
The Justice Department also said Martino conspired with former cybersecurity professionals to attack additional victims. The department’s announcement did not identify all five victims.
BlackCat, also known as ALPHV, has been associated with ransomware attacks in which victims’ data or computer systems are taken hostage and money is demanded for restoration or to prevent disclosure. In this case, Martino’s prior experience in cyber incident response placed him in a position connected to the response side of such attacks, according to the department’s account.
The sentence does not mean Martino personally carried out every attack described in the case. The federal case centered on conspiracy to extort victims and on helping attack additional victims.
Part of Operation Riptide
The Justice Department said the prosecution was part of the FBI’s continuing Operation Riptide. The operation is one element of federal efforts to identify and disrupt ransomware activity and pursue people involved in attacks against victims.
The department also pointed to earlier FBI disruption efforts. Those efforts produced a decryption tool that reportedly helped victims avoid approximately $99 million in ransom payments.
Decryption tools can allow some victims to restore access to encrypted systems without paying an attacker. The reported savings figure describes ransom payments that the FBI tool helped victims avoid; it is not a measure of all losses caused by ransomware.
The broader cost of cybercrime
The Justice Department said Americans reported more than $20 billion in cybercrime losses during the prior year, a 26% increase from the year before. The figure covers cybercrime broadly, rather than ransomware alone, and reflects reported losses.
That distinction matters because ransomware is only one part of the wider cybercrime landscape. The number nevertheless underscores the scale of the financial harm described by federal authorities as they pursue cases involving ransomware groups, facilitators and people with specialized technical knowledge.
The Martino prosecution also illustrates the security risk created when people with trusted access or incident-response experience assist criminal operators. A person familiar with how organizations respond to a cyberattack may understand the pressure points involved in negotiations, system recovery and decisions about whether to pay.
What happens next
Martino’s 70-month sentence is the completed punishment announced in the case. The Justice Department said the FBI’s Operation Riptide effort is continuing, meaning federal investigators and prosecutors remain focused on ransomware-related activity beyond this individual prosecution.
For businesses and other organizations responding to ransomware, the case is a reminder that an incident can involve more than an outside criminal group. Federal authorities are also examining the role of insiders, former cybersecurity personnel and others who may help attackers identify, pressure or target victims.
Sources
- Florida Ransomware Negotiator Who Extorted and Attacked Multiple U.S. Victims Sentenced to Prison, U.S. Department of Justice
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