MonsterCloud CEO Indicted for Billing Ransomware Victims While Paying Attackers
Zohar Pinhasi, who served as CEO of MonsterCloud, was indicted on October 7, 2026 on wire fraud charges in the Eastern District of New York.
1 source 16h ago
Reporting from 1 source: GIGAZINE.
Why it matters
The case turns on the gap between what a remediation firm advertised and what it actually did, and the indictment alleges that gap was the business model rather than a failure of it.
Key Facts
- Zohar Pinhasi, who served as CEO of MonsterCloud, was indicted on October 7, 2026 on wire fraud charges in the Eastern District of New York.
- The indictment alleges Pinhasi billed customers more than $19 million and paid more than $8 million of that to ransomware attackers.
- In one August 2023 case, Pinhasi paid about $8,200 in ransom while billing the customer about $150,000.
- A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office said Pinhasi has pleaded not guilty.
- ProPublica noted the indictment reflects the contents of its 2019 investigative article 'The Trade Secret.'
Prosecutors allege he told ransomware victims his company could restore encrypted files with proprietary decryption tools, then used part of the fees to pay the attackers for keys. The indictment says he billed customers more than $19 million and paid more than $8 million as ransom.
Prosecutors say the fees were the point. In one August 2023 case described in the indictment, Pinhasi paid about $8,200 to cybercriminals holding a customer's files and billed that customer about $150,000. Across the scheme, the indictment alleges more than $19 million in customer billings and more than $8 million in ransom payments to attackers.
Pinhasi has pleaded not guilty, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office. FBI Deputy Director James C. Barnacle Jr. said in a statement that the defendant claimed to remediate ransomware but never addressed the underlying threat. ProPublica noted the indictment tracks its 2019 investigation, in which Pinhasi, then using the pseudonym Zack Green, called MonsterCloud's recovery method a trade secret.
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