Israeli-American MonsterCloud Owner Arraigned in U.S. Fraud Case

Israeli-American Zohar Pinhasi, 50, owner of Florida-based MonsterCloud, was arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn on October 7 on conspiracy and wire-fraud charges. U.S. prosecutors allege the company promised proprietary ransomware-decryption tools and an alternative to paying attackers, but secretly bought decryption keys from the attackers and charged clients more. According to prosecutors, clients were charged more than $19 million while more than $8 million was paid in ransoms. The indictment concerns hundreds of companies in the United States and Canada. The allegations remain unproven, and Pinhasi is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.