Ransomware recovery CEO charged over secret ransom payments
MonsterCloud owner Zohar Pinhasi was charged with secretly paying ransomware gangs while billing victims for decryption.
The owner of Florida firm MonsterCloud, Zohar Pinhasi, was indicted in the Eastern District of New York on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two wire-fraud counts. Prosecutors allege that from June 2018 to June 2023 he claimed proprietary decryption while secretly paying ransomware operators for keys, then billed customers far more than the ransoms. The scheme allegedly facilitated more than $8 million in ransom payments and more than $19 million in fees to hundreds of companies in the United States and Canada. Pinhasi pleaded not guilty, was released on a $2 million bond, and faces up to 20 years if convicted.