If I'd just collected enough ransom to retire and never work again, I'd also put out a press release announcing I was out of business and someone seized all my shit and etc.
Darkside was a legit business. They routinely collected ransoms ten or twenty times larger than what they got from Colonial. if they were going to retire, they would have done it a long time ago
I can't find evidence of this "routinely collected ransoms ten or twenty times larger than what they got from Colonial" claim. Colonial is rumored to have paid out ~$4mm. Every source about Darkside seems to cite a "between $200,000 and $2 million for the file decryption key" range. This would put the Colonial ransom far above their typical payout.
