Florida cyber owner accused of misleading ransomware victims; firm charged $19M, secretly paid hackers $8M

Zohar Pinhasi, the owner of MonsterCloud, faces charges of wire fraud related to his cybersecurity business. Prosecutors allege he misrepresented his firm's capabilities to clients facing ransomware attacks. Instead of recovering data without ransom payment, he secretly paid attackers and charged clients significantly higher fees. Pinhasi allegedly collected over $19 million while paying more than $8 million in ransoms.