Iranian man pleads guilty to 2019 Baltimore ransomware attack
- October 21, 2025
- Posted by: Web workers
- Category: Workers Comp
(Reuters) — An Iranian national pleaded guilty to participating in the high-profile 2019 Baltimore ransomware attack, among others, and to causing tens of millions of dollars in losses and disrupted services, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.
Sina Gholinejad 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 attack on Baltimore, beginning 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.
The DOJ statement and publicly available court records did not allege a state-backed connection in this case.
Mr. Gholinejad was arrested Jan. 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.
Mr. Gholinejad and unnamed co-conspirators were behind a string of ransomware attacks using the Robinhood ransomware variant from January 2019 through March 2024, according to an April 2024 indictment unsealed Tuesday.
Additional victims included 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.
