MonsterCloud Owner Accused of Billing Over $19M While Secretly Paying Ransoms to Decrypt Data

A 50-year-old US and Israeli national has been charged with wire fraud and other crimes related to ransomware. The individual, Zohar Pinhasi, allegedly defrauded victims by secretly paying attackers for decryptors while claiming to use proprietary tools for data recovery. The US Department of Justice announced the charges, which stem from Pinhasi's alleged actions as the owner of MonsterCloud. He is accused of billing over $19 million to victims. The charges include two counts of wire fraud and one count of wire-related crime. Pinhasi allegedly used multiple aliases, including Zack Silver and Zack Green.