A federal indictment and DOJ announcement say Zohar Pinhasi, owner of Florida-based ransomware remediation firm MonsterCloud, is charged with wire fraud for allegedly paying ransomware attackers without clients’ knowledge and then billing those clients for far more than the amounts allegedly paid to the gangs. Prosecutors allege he obtained decryptors by covertly compensating attackers, while representing to victims that MonsterCloud would recover their data using proprietary methods.
Outlets report that Pinhasi, who is described as a 50-year-old U.S. and Israeli national, used aliases including “Zack Silver” and “Zack Green.” According to the reporting, the indictment alleges MonsterCloud billed victims more than $19 million total while secretly paying more than $8 million to attackers for decryptors. Coverage focuses on how the alleged conduct combined undisclosed payments to criminals with claims about the firm’s recovery capabilities.
The sources emphasize the government’s allegations and present differing levels of detail about the case’s specific claims, but they converge on the core accusations: concealment of ransom-related payments and overcharging victims during ransomware recovery services. The reports do not indicate the outcome of the charges.
