A federal court sentenced Ryan Clifford Goldberg, 40, a former Sygnia incident response manager, and Kevin Tyler Martin, 36, a former DigitalMint ransomware negotiator, to four years each for conspiracy to obstruct commerce by extortion under the Hobbs Act. Both pleaded guilty in December after prosecutors established they’d used insider cybersecurity expertise to deploy BlackCat (ALPHV) ransomware against U.S. businesses between May and November 2023.
Goldberg and Martin operated as BlackCat affiliates, paying the gang 20% of ransom proceeds for access to its ransomware and extortion platform. Victims included a Maryland pharmaceutical company, a Tampa medical device manufacturer, a California engineering firm, a Virginia drone manufacturer, and a California doctor’s office. Demands ranged from $300,000 to $10 million.
The Tampa medical device company paid $1.27 million after receiving a $10 million demand in May 2023. Prosecutors said the payment was laundered and split three ways with Angelo Martino, 41, a third accomplice who pleaded guilty in April and hasn’t been sentenced yet.
“These defendants exploited specialized cybersecurity knowledge not to protect victims, but to extort them,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said Thursday. DigitalMint CEO Jonathan Solomon confirmed the firm terminated both employees once it learned of the conduct, calling it a violation of the company’s values, ethical standards, and the law.
The FBI linked BlackCat to more than 60 breaches in its first four months of operation and, separately, to at least $300 million in ransom payments from over 1,000 victims through September 2023. Martino awaits sentencing.
James Okafor