Iranian man pleads guilty in US to 2019 Baltimore ransomware attack

By AJ Vicens
(Reuters) -An Iranian national pleaded guilty to participating in the high-profile 2019 Baltimore, Maryland, ransomware attack, among others, and to causing tens of millions of dollars in losses and disrupted services, the Department of Justice said on Tuesday.
Sina Gholinejad, 37, faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to one count of computer fraud and abuse and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the DOJ.
The DOJ statement and publicly available court records did not allege a state-backed connection in this case, but U.S. authorities in recent years have warned of Iranian government hacking groups targeting U.S. critical infrastructure and private-sector entities.
Iranian-linked hackers have also targeted U.S. critical infrastructure under the guise of ostensibly independent personas, such as the November 2023 defacement of water treatment equipment in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, by a group called Cyber Av3ngers. The U.S. government later tied the group to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iran has denied targeting entities in the U.S. with cyberattacks.
Gholinejad was arrested January 10, 2025, at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport, according to federal court records.
The circumstances of his arrest were not immediately clear. The assistant federal public defender assigned to his case declined to comment.
Gholinejad and unnamed co-conspirators were behind a string of ransomware attacks using the Robbinhood ransomware variant dating to January 2019 through March 2024, according to an April 2024 indictment unsealed on Tuesday.
Additional victims include computer networks in the cities of Gresham, Oregon; Yonkers, New York; and Greenville, North Carolina, along with the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District in California and the nonprofit Berkshire Farm Center and Services for Youth, based in New York.
The attack on Baltimore, beginning on May 7, 2019, cost the city more than $19 million from damage to computer networks and disruptions to city services including the processing of property taxes, water bills, parking citations and other revenue-generating functions lasting many months, the DOJ said in its statement.

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It was not clear whether anyone was identified. A video apparently from Burkina Faso, shared on X the same month, showed an armed man in military pants and sleeveless shirt dancing, holding a severed hand and foot, at one point grinning as the foot dangled from his teeth. In another, a man in Burkinabe military uniform cuts through what appears to be a human body. He says: 'Good meat indeed. We are Cobra 2.' Another man is heard saying: 'This is BIR 15. BIR 15 always does well its job, by all means. Fatherland or death, we shall win.' BIR 15 Cobra 2 is the name of a special intervention unit created by Burkina Faso's ruler, Ibrahim Traore, to combat extremists. 'Fatherland or death' is the motto of pro-government forces. The videos were removed from X and put behind a paywall on Telegram. Burkina Faso's army condemned the videos' 'macabre acts' and described them as 'unbearable images of rare cruelty.' The army said it was working to identify those responsible, adding that it 'distances itself from these inhumane practices.' It was not clear whether anyone has been identified. Other posts shared by alleged Wagner-affiliated channels include images of what appear to be mutilated corpses and beheaded, castrated and dismembered bodies of people, including ones described as extremist fighters, often accompanied with mocking commentary. One post shows two white men in military attire with what appears to be a human roasting on a spit, with the caption: 'The meat you hunt always tastes better,' along with an emoji of a Russian flag. It is hard to know at what scale cannibalism might occur in the context of warfare in the Sahel, and actual cases are 'likely rare,' said Danny Hoffman, chair in international studies at the University of Washington. 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It says accountability for alleged abuses has been minimal, with the military government reluctant to investigate its armed forces and Russian mercenaries. It has become difficult to obtain detailed information on alleged abuses because of the Malian government's 'relentless assault against the political opposition, civil society groups, the media and peaceful dissent,' said Ilaria Allegrozzi, the group's Sahel researcher. That has worsened after a U.N. peacekeeping mission withdrew from Mali in December 2023 at the government's request. That void, she said, 'has eased the way for further atrocities' — and left social media as one of the best ways to glimpse what's happening on the ground. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . 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