MonsterCloud owner Zohar Pinhasi faces wire fraud charges

First reported by The Hacker News at · Updated · 3 sources

Prosecutors allege that Pinhasi secretly paid ransomware attackers to obtain decryptors, then charged victims millions for data recovery. According to The Hacker News, he claimed to use proprietary recovery tools. Gizmodo reports that the indictment alleges payments to attackers were only a fraction of the fees charged to clients.

  • The Hacker News reports that victims were billed more than $19 million.
  • MonsterCloud is based in Florida, according to Security Affairs.

Covered by 3 publishers within 34 hours of the first report.

Reporting3

The Hacker News MonsterCloud Owner Accused of Billing Over $19M While Secretly Paying Ransoms to Decrypt Data · info@thehackernews.com (The Hacker News)
Security Affairs MonsterCloud Owner Charged With Secretly Paying Ransomware Demands · Pierluigi Paganini
Gizmodo Feds Say Ransomware Expert’s Miracle Cure Was Just Paying the Hackers · Kyle Torpey

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Topics Ransomware