Ransomware dealer jailed for 70 months after helping infect victims with malware

Ransomware negotiator Angelo Martino to serve 70 months in prison for secretly helping BlackCat (ALPHV) attackers
Martino loses cryptocurrency earnings, houses, cars and boats, and must pay 10% of future salary after his release.
Martino was the third negotiator exposed; his co-conspirators Ryan Clifford Goldberg and Kevin Tyler Martin previously received four-year sentences for similar domestic collusion.

A ransomware negotiator who worked with attackers behind his clients’ backs has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison.

A sentencing memorandum released by the US government said that Angelo Martino, 41, will spend the next 70 months in prison and will also lose all the cryptocurrency the attackers paid him for sharing inside information, as well as all the houses, cars and boats he had bought with this money.

He will also have to pay 10% of any wages he earns after his release.

Asking for a shorter sentence

In November 2025, it was reported that three men who worked as ransomware negotiators to help victims minimize the damage from these attacks were actually agents of the feared BlackCat ransomware collective (ALPHV).

Over the following months, it was reported that the men, Ryan Clifford Goldberg of Georgia, Kevin Tyler Martin of Texas, and Angelo Martino of Land O’Lakes, Florida, not only failed to help their victims, but even infected some of them with ransomware and then shared valuable inside information with other BlackCat affiliates to maximize the payout.

His victims included at least five companies: a Florida medical device company (it demanded a $10 million ransom and ended up paying about $1.2 million), a Maryland pharmaceutical company, a California doctor’s office and engineering company, and a Virginia-based drone manufacturer.

While all three faced serious prison sentences (between 10 and 20 years), they received much less. Martin and Goldberg were each sentenced to four years in prison in April 2026, while Martino will spend five years and ten months behind bars. Martino pleaded guilty and asked for a 24-month sentence, stating that he “provided substantial assistance that contributed to the indictment and conviction of two co-defendants.” It didn’t work.

Through Ars Technique