The apology came after journalist Kevin wrote a story in the Daily Mail alongside fellow reporters Georgia Edkins and Michael Powell.
In their message, Conti even praised the Mail for the “great coverage”.
“It was extraordinary” Kevin says. “I didn’t expect them to compliment me for my work.”
Graff handed over a ransom of around $7.5m, but did not respond to the BBC’s requests for comment.
Conti’s internal chats show one of the hackers, who claims to have been part of the Graff job, boasting about getting about 1% of the payout, $75,000, with which he would build a house.
The Graff attack happened in late October 2021 and things seemed to be going well for Conti.
As the boss Stern put it, “none of the other notorious encryptors are left now”.
But Mango, the usually calm office manager, was getting frustrated.
“Honestly,” they told Stern, “I try to solve all your crazy extravagant quests but I get the strong feeling you don’t care at all.
“I’ve spent my whole life getting all this organized and rolling it out.
“At this rate, I’ll be grey in a year or two.”