Cybersecurity
U.S. charges MonsterCloud owner over ransom billing scheme
The Justice Department said Zohar Pinhasi, who ran MonsterCloud, was charged with fraud after allegedly paying ransomware attackers for decryptors while billing clients as if the company had recovered the data itself.
- The Justice Department charged Zohar Pinhasi, also known as Zack Silver and Zack Green, with two counts of wire fraud and one count of wire fraud conspiracy.
- Prosecutors said Pinhasi owned and ran MonsterCloud in Florida and told ransomware victims that the company had its own tools for recovering data.
- The department alleged that he instead paid attackers for decryptors and then billed customers more than the ransom amounts.
- The DOJ said Pinhasi collected more than $19 million from clients and paid more than $8 million in ransom, including about $8,200 in one 2023 case and about $236,000 in one 2021 case.
The Justice Department said on Wednesday that it had charged Zohar Pinhasi, a 50-year-old US and Israeli national, with two wire fraud counts and one conspiracy count. It said each count carried a possible sentence of 20 years if he was convicted.
Prosecutors said Pinhasi owned and operated MonsterCloud in Florida. They alleged that he told ransomware victims not to pay and said the company had its own tools and methods to recover their data.
The article quoted MonsterCloud's website as saying the company used advanced decryption methods and sometimes took other steps to resolve incidents. It also quoted site material that discouraged victims from paying ransoms.
The Justice Department said those claims were false. According to the allegations, Pinhasi contacted the attackers, paid them for decryptors, and then billed clients more than the ransom payment.
The department said he charged customers more than $19 million in total and paid more than $8 million to the attackers. U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr. and FBI Assistant Director James C. Barnacle Jr. both said the conduct amounted to deception and profit from victims' crises.
Named in this story
People
- Zohar Pinhasi (aka Zack Silver and Zack Green)
- was charged with wire fraud and conspiracy allegations
- Joseph Nocella, Jr.
- the U.S. Attorney who criticised the alleged scheme
- James C. Barnacle Jr.
- said Pinhasi claimed to fix ransomware while profiting from victims
Companies
- MonsterCloud
- was the Florida company Pinhasi owned and ran
Governments and agencies
- U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ)
- announced the charges against Zohar Pinhasi
- Eastern District of New York
- the district represented by the U.S. Attorney in the case
- U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
- was quoted through an assistant director on the case
How the source tells it
The piece was written in an accusatory legal register, with prosecutorial allegations and condemnatory official quotes carrying most of the emotional weight.
- outrage and condemnation official statements and quoted remarks present the conduct as deliberate victim exploitation
- moral framing the article contrasts claims of helping ransomware victims with allegations of charging them for the attackers' decryptors